


Star Wars: The Adventures of a Sith Pirate

by Captain_Kiri_Storm



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Adoption, Ahsoka Tano Lives, Alternate Universe - Pirate, Darth Maul escapes his Master, F/M, For a Friend, Gen, Hondo thinks this a GREAT idea, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Inappropriate Humor, Krell is the devil, M/M, Maul Becomes a Good Person, Maul wants to know if you can return clones, Mpreg, Rex is so done, Sidious is a dick, Space Husbands, Space Pirates, through Accident
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-01
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2018-09-03 11:55:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 34
Words: 36,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8712838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Captain_Kiri_Storm/pseuds/Captain_Kiri_Storm
Summary: Maul escaped Lord Sidious. He has no idea what to do with his life now, beyond trying to scrape by on the lean, hard streets of the Galactic City.
When he tries stealing from the wrong pirate, Maul is certain he'll wind up in the breeding pens of Nar Shadda. But, thankfully, Hondo sees something in the scarred, young Zabrak and decides to teach him a few things. Such as how to run the family business of killing people and stealing their stuff. After all, the dead guy doesn't need it anymore. 
And yet...when Maul steals an entire division of clone troopers (after killing their General, of course), no one is surprised. Least of all Hondo.
He did train that boy well.





	1. I'm Running Away

His Master had given him a mission: take down the Bothans who were dangerously close to discovering his secret. The Bothan Spy Net was pretty good for a pack of sentients armed with blaster rifles and their wits. The sixteen year old Zabrak had his saberstaff, yes, but that was about it. He was to kill the squad of Bothans. Spare none of them in the village. Leave it as a warning to not mess with the Sith. Maul, though, didn't want to do it. He'd been promising himself since the age of five that he would he would escape the first chance he got. He wanted to. He wanted to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, without fear of being beaten or starved or lied too. He could be _free_.  


Maul wrapped the cloak over his body and tried to keep his head down. His color wasn't as flashy as a blue or a silver, but he had a good size. His Master had purred that if Maul had displeased him during training, saying that any breeding pen would be happy to have him. He had good size, they said, but bad color. Maul looked straight ahead as he walked, trying to control the fear that he felt. He'd rigged his brand new ship, the _Scimitar_ , to explode. He needed to get out of here before the reactors blew. The press was going to scream that this was another piece of Seppie terrorism. Maul hated to see the ship go, but he felt lighter than he had in years. No more Master to breathe down his neck and beat him. No one to slice him with his own lightsaber. No one to hurt him, ever again.  


He darted between two buildings and stripped. He pulled out the tracker woven into his leggings and left it on the duracrete wall. Right in the path of a silica slug. He took a shiny dagger and sliced into his arm. His training made it so easy to channel the burning pain into rage and dig the chip out of his arm. He dropped it, too, on the broken duracrete and started to heal the injury with the Force. He picked a random alley and started walking down the first alley he saw. He blocked himself from the Force just in time. A few seconds later, there was a massive explosion and the sirens wailed. Maul himself stumbled as he felt the shock wave. A few hawkbats were stirred from their roots, but nothing else happened.  


Shadows darted at the bases of the builduings as Maul walked. He looked around at the cracked and decaying bases, wondering how the skyscrapers stood upright. He walked on. His boots crunched over broken glass and he growled as stench invaded his nose. He was no stranger to pain, cold, and hunger, but he had no idea what he was going to do with himself. He was only sixteen...yet he looked like a hardened killer. And that was because he was. He'd killed far too many men to count. Just in training, though. Unlucky bastards that his Master had scooped out of the street for him to practice killing. Maul didn't want to kill them and killing children had always made him sick.  


Maul pushed his way into a growing crowd. He looked at the gathering crowd of merchants, gasping as he looked at all of species. Twi'leks with monkey lizards perched on their shoulders walked past him. Other Zabraks, some chained to docking platforms, watched the crowd with pained amber eyes. Anoobas ran under foot, chasing chickens. A rooster crowed on top of a man's box of crates. A Besalisk was offering drugs to a Togrtuan male who waved him off, Several humans, dressed in the garb of Star Gypsies passed through the crowd. Others were selling cheap beer by the flask. He watched as some was selling strips of fried hawkbat and conned his way into a box of fafael balls. And a pazza. Because he _could_.  


Maul wanted to scream to the galaxy that he was _free_. He has escaped his Master and ran away. But he did nothing and kept winding his way through the darker allies. His senses prickled as he walked around, but the teenage Sith wasn't scared. He was elated, and he was free. He'd ran away. No one was going to beat him. No one was going to starve him. He controlled his own life and his own future. Maul pulled his hood up as the rain started to pour from the sky. His robes, made of woven Kraven silk, repelled the worst of the water, but it wasn't enough to get rid of all of it.  


The red darted into an old building and sat down, looking over the tables. A six inch layer of dust covered what looked like pazzac tables and Maul could see the valuable chips just thrown into the corners.  


Plus the remains of a dead body.   


Maul shrugged and climbed the stairs. He couldn't sense anything bad and this looked like as good a place as any to hide out until he figured out what to do.  



	2. The Thief Taker

Maul perched on top of the space port, looking out over the ships coming and going. He'd been scrabbling around for about a month now and was doing pretty well with it. Already, the Southern Underground was whispering about a red skinned demon with a sword of fire. Sometimes he killed you and took your stuff. Othertimes, he killed you if you were heckling a Twi'lek or he killed a giant rat that was trying to eat a Naboo child that had wandered away from its family. A massive narglatch rested at his side, his tail flicking as Maul watched the ships coming and going. The Zabrak absently reached down and scratched the creature behind his ears. Simba huffed a little in annoyance before snatching the last little bit of roasted nuna from his grubby hand.

"Hey now! You don't know where that hand has been!" Maul protested. Simba gave him a look of annoyance before he tapped his spade shaped tail on the chipped duracrete. Maul rolled his eyes and wiped his hands off on the velvety black coat. The big cat huffed a little more before getting up. Simba had once been part of an illegal animal fighting ring, and his scarred hide showed that. He walked with a bit of a limp and some of his spikes had been torn off in the fights. Maul sympathized with the cat and often lavished him with care. "Or, check that, you know _exactly_ where that hand has been."

"Talking to the cat again?" a dry voice asked. Maul looked up as a young Pu'an dropped from the upper level. Simba jumped up, but settled back down when Maul nodded at the other male. Dirk walked over quickly, holding a small satchel of supplies. "Whatcha doing?"

"Wishing I had a ship." It was the truth, but Maul wasn't going to say that he'd blown his new ship up. He wasn't stupid and Dirk had a short temper. And a good aim, especially with the staff he had strapped across his back. Maul had a saberstaff. He wasn't going to say anything about it, just as Dirk never asked about the massive cat curled around Maul's feet. "Wishing I could get off of this rock. Think a Hutt'll take me seriously with Simba?"

"Dude, that's an adult _narglatch_ ," Dirk sighed. He sat beside Maul and tossed Simba a canine bone. The cat snatched it out of the air. The next thing Maul knew, the cat was crunching it up in his massive jaws. "That's, like, a space panther from the jungles of Naboo. That thing could kill a rancor!"

"He probably has." Maul gestured to the scars on the cat's velvety coat. Simba shook himself and rolled over before starting to groom what was left of his tail. "But it's just me and a light sword."

"With a cat that outweighs a small speeder. Those things eat people!"

"Yes, I know, because he ate the guard who was trying to kill me." A sappy, sweet grin crossed Maul's face and he scratched behind Simba's ears. The cat paused from licking his butt to purr for a few moments. Then he went back to grooming himself again, unconcerned with the matter at hand. "He's a _very_ good kitty."

Dirk shook his head and pulled out his comm. "Anyways, I think I found us some good stuff."

Maul perked up. "Yeah? Like what?"

The Pu'an shrugged. "Some pirate's coming to town. Hondo, I think. He's not that much of anything, when you think about it. The guy's been in the cross hairs of the GAR for ages. So what does he do? He goes and locks up two Jedi, mind you, _Jedi_ with a Sith!" During his tail, Dirk's wildly gesturing hands almost smacked Simba in the face. The narglatch hissed and moved his considerable bulk to the other side of the platform. Dirk rolled his eyes and spread out a map. "Anyways, Hondo has to have a few screws loose to come through here."

Maul nodded and stood up. "That settles it. Tell Zero and the gang that I'll take Hondo. You and Eogan can deal with the others. It's be a good time for him to practice his mind trick."

"Ten four, Cap." With that, Dirk vanished as he'd came.

"C'mon, Simba." Maul started down, followed by a loud _thump_ as over five hundred pounds of space panther jumped down beside him. Maul had no idea why the cat had chosen to like him rather than eat him. But the asshole who owned him and kept the massive cat in a dirty, filthy cage. Maul had been in a cage like that and he'd set the animals free and tossed the owner to a pair of starved tusk-cats before letting them go. Simba had actually stayed with him. Maul wasn't sure if the narglatch liked him or was saving him for a rainy day.

Even with a massive cat following at his heels, the young Zabrak blended into the crowd. Plenty of other pick pockets roamed the streets, looking for easy valuables. Most steered clear of the Red Devil and his Demon Cat. Maul had broken more than a few arms in defense of his credit pouch. And Simba had eaten a few of them. The cat followed at his own pace, head swinging about to look at targets with ease. Maul actually spotted the Weequay and his crew first. It wasn't that had, especially when Hondo was staggering around like, well...a drunk pirate. Maul slipped up to the man and Simba moved to cut him off.

Then those big eyes blinked and Maul knew he was in a trap.

"Simba! Look out!" Maul just barely ducked the blaster bolt slung at his head. He whipped around and Simba screamed. The cat lunged at a Twi'lek and eviscerated her with a swipe of the claws. Maul grabbed his own blaster and knocked three blaster bolt aside with three of his own. People screamed and started pushing around them. Maul jumped back. Simba whirled around and bit the guy who thought it was a good idea to stab a narglatch. The cat hissed and flung the dead body into a puddle of water. Sirens wailed and Maul winged the old pirate across the shoulder. Hondo stumbled. The cat bounded towards him and shoved his face in Maul's belly.

They needed to go, _before_ the police got here.

But not before Maul relieved Hondo of his gunbelt and credit pouch. Besides, who in their right mind would take on a _narglatch_? Maul had the feeling that he didn't want to find out and started running through the streets, cat at his heels. Narglatches could run really fast when they wanted too and Maul had ridden his pet several times.

"Stop, thief!"

He completely ignored the old pirate and jumped on Simba's back, mid stride. The cat didn't even break stride. Instead, he started running flat out for home.


	3. Old Friends

Riding a narglatch did not feel very good. For one thing, he was riding a _very_ muscular big cat without a saddle. For another, Simba moved in an up and down motion. The cat swayed from side to side and galloped. All you could do was grab on his shoulders and hope for the best. The cat leapt over a barrel and Maul almost fell off. The cat darted aside and the crowds fled around them. There was yelling behind him. Maul didn't dare turn around. He just kept riding the big cat until they hit the slums. After that, Simba skidded to a stop and Maul leapt off the cat's back.

"Good kitty," Maul cooed. He scratched under the cat's chin and gave him a lopsided smile. The cat purred. He butted Maul's shoulder and he almost fell over. Maul smiled. He rubbed one of the cat's spikes before slinging his prizes over his shoulders. The cat lifted his head and trotted forward. Maul saw what he saw and cursed. The red Zabrak jogged forward and caught the arm of a blue skinned Twi'lek girl. She gave him a vacant smile before petting Simba's shoulder. The cat purred and shot Maul a possessive look. The Zabrak backed off.

"You're such a sweet kitty," Azure cooed. Maul caught a look at the left side of her face, at the place where her lekku had been bitten off. A nexu had attacked her. Some cats could be tamed, much like a narglatch. But some cats, like a nexu, couldn't be tamed. They would always be slightly wild. And it looked like one had decided to take a chunk out of her lekku. It had left Azure with brain damage. She was still able to breathe on her own, but she was very childlike and often had intense nightmares. "Aren't you just? Didn't you save him again?"

Maul raised an eyebrow. "This cat just killed three people. Now why don't you let him run some steam off before he bites your head off?"

Azure looked down. "He is a big kitty." And that was the understatement of the century, but Maul wasn't going to burst her bubble. It wasn't her fault she was off the way she was. It was the fault of the man who'd enslaved her and let her get savaged by a nexu. Azure had been left to die in a filthy gutter. What good was a slave who didn't understand you?

"Yes, he's a _very_ big kitty." Maul tried to keep his cool. Getting mad at Azure never solved anything. She just looked at you with her big hazel eyes ad started tearing up. And Maul hated making her cry. "He's rather spun up right now, but if you played with him later, I'm sure he'll play laser pointer with you."

"Yay!" Azure gave him a light kiss on the cheek before running off.

Maul sighed and slipped inside the cloth covered door. Zaffre, the second member of their little home crew, was standing over an open fire. He saw several pieces of naan cooking on one of the big cookstones Dirk had dragged out of someone's flower garden and it looked like someone had gotten them half an eopie. Maul licked his lips. The Pantoran woman ignored him and kept stirring something in a large, cast iron pot. Maul sniffed the air and flopped down on a large pillow. It looked like the triplets had gone house breaking again. Or Jael had fleeced another merchant. Maul swallowed a smile. The Zeltron had been his first friend. She was a wiry street girl and could often outwit the troopers without even trying.

"If you're going to sit on yer ass, you might as well make yourself useful." Zaf picked up one of the butcher knives and tossed it at his head. Maul grabbed it with the Force and examined the edge. He grinned a little. No gleaming spots _anywhere_. "Oh, yes, Athras  sharpened the knives again. He swears that Trandoshan bone is the absolute best for getting that sharp, honed edge."

"Of course he would! Athras is a _Wookiee_!"

Zaffre tossed her purple hair over her shoulder before pointing Maul at the haunches waiting for him to carve. "You have work to do, Mister."

"All right, all right." Maul rolled his eyes and started cutting up the densely muscled meat. For feeding a Wookiee, a Zabrak, two Pua'an, a Pantoran, a Twi'lek, a Zeltron, and three Deltans, eopie meat was the best you could get. He settled down by the meat and started slicing off the scales. "Azure remembered Simba."

"She loves cats." Zaf sighed and added something to the food in the pot. "You know that. Half the feral animals in the block come at her call. It's good having someone like her for begging. Just gotta keep her out of the Hutt district, that's all."

"She got half a lekku bit off. It's called dain bramage."

Zaf hit him upside the head with a pearl onion. Maul snagged it out of the air and grinned. "You could be nicer about it!"

A white blonde humanoid came running inside. Deltans could pass as humans...as long as you ignored the bright orange and the white blonde hair. Jael dropped from the ceiling. Mikka walked in the front entrance.  Torro came up from behind them, with a dirty Azure riding on Simba's back. Maul rolled his eyes and tossed Simba the bloody bone. The cat grabbed it and started tearing the remains off the bone. Last were Dirk and Ashlee. The Pau'an siblings dropped down and grabbed a piece of naan each.

"Found Azure in the gutter," Torro gruffly said. The golden eyes alien grabbed a raw chunk of meat and snacked on it. "Playing with baby akk dogs, if you can believe it."

"It's Azure." Zaffre turned away and sighed. "You know how she acts."

Maul did...and he was getting the bad feeling this was only just the beginning of a whole nother mess.


	4. Found Ya, Ya Scum!

Maul should have known something so good couldn't have lasted for a very long time. That just was not in the cards for him. It was like the galaxy had painted a big, red target on his body and let the bad guys of the galaxy get at it. He didn't know what he needed to do. He knew he had to do _something_. This entire gang was almost counting on him. As the lone Force user, Maul had to watch out for them. He felt an odd kinship with these people. Maybe it was because they had trusted him to keep them safe. Maul didn't want to pace, that would make people ask what he was doing, but he was still needed to do something. He went through the credit pouch and the gun belt. It was a good haul, but was it worth the safety of his friends?

"What's bit you?" Zaf asked. The Pantoran woman passed Azure a piece of naan. She ate it happily before sitting down and petting Simba. The big cat let her, his eyes closed as she lavished him with attention. For a big, gruff cat, he was rather soft and sweet. Azure seemed to like to play with him. His eyes were closed as he lay, sprawled out, on the ground. Maul laughed softly.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Maul finally said. He watched as Dirk tried to flirt with Jael, only to get a piece of gristle bounced off his head. Athras laughed something in his native tongue and flopped back down to go play with his knives again. Maul tried to ignore the hairy beast. He was very well aware that the Jedi might try to kill him because of what had happened before, but he still had his saberstaff. Old, to be sure, but it had seen him through a dozen battles. Ashlee looked at him before going back to her comm-pad and talking about the latest scores at the greysor track. Her pet greysor, Tamma, lay at her feet. He acted much like a large dog, despite being a species of primate.

Zaf cursed under her breath. Maul's bad feelings often metastasized into outright fights. He hadn't been wrong yet. "I'll go get Azure someplace safe."

Maul nodded. "That might be a very good idea, too." He stood up and grabbed a blaster. Simba raised his massive, wedge shaped head before getting to his feet. He gave Azure a quick lick on the shoulder before climbing to his feet. The others barely paid him any mind, minus Athras. The big Wookiee climbed to his feet and settled in beside Maul as he climbed up on a broken duracrete ledge. A few hawk-bats fussed at him, as he had disturbed their nests, but Maul sent them away with a wave of the Force. "Hey. Nice of you to join me."

Athras rumbled that the fire was making him sweat through his fur, and, if Maul had a fur coat, he wouldn't allow Zaffre to build an open fire. The smoke got in his fur, his eyes, and his muzzle. Plus, getting rained on made his fur turn all musty.

The red Zabrak laughed slightly. "You do know I'm hairless, right? No thatch or carpet to speak of." Minus his eye lashes, of course. He had eye lashes, but that was the only hair on his body. He rather liked not having hair. Keeping his long claws trimmed was hard enough. As was making sure that he had a small pot of oil to keep his skin oiled with every day. He rather liked having it on hand. And he enjoyed walking out in the rain. It was a lukewarm shower if you asked him.

Simba raised his head and growled. Maul scrambled to his feet, followed by Athras. The Wookiee snarled. Maul saw them, too. A small army of pirates, all armed to the teeth with what looked like swords, blasters, daggers, a rocket launcher, grenades, and a flame thrower. All Maul and his little group had were hand weapons. Small hand weapons.  It wasn't like they could just go against those guys and play fly-hits-truck...

"Get the others." Maul jumped down and activated his lightsaber. The leader of that group stopped short.

"So...I didn't know the Jedi _stole_ ," the pirate drawled. He was a nasty looking Barabel and he gave maul a long look. The Zabrak growled. He flexed his clawed hands and wondered what it would be like to take out this nasty looking enemy. The pirate stepped forwards. Others were Weequay, but they looked like a diverse lot. No Besalisk, though. Maul hissed and took a step forward. He could kill this male rather quickly and put a fear of the Force in all the rest. "It must be hard, slumming it down here."

Maul shrugged. "I used to be a slave until I ran away. I'm no Jedi womp-rat. You insult me."

The Barabel shrugged. "Doesn't mater to me any. I don't have any Zabrak teeth in my necklace. Thought all of you were concentrated up in the kennels anyway."

Red light flashed in Maul's eyes and he stepped forward. Simba snarled and lowered his head, tail twitching. Maul swept his lit saberstaff in an arc and sent a few of the others scattering back. He could hear the others trying to get involved behind him, but this was his fight. Maul moved forward and sliced at the Barabel. The big alien dropped back. He shot off a bolt and Maul slashed it aside. The aliens ran at each other and the alley exploded into battle. Simba grabbed someone by the neck and flung a dead body aside. Dirk had his knives out and messed up a Denovarian.

Maul danced alongside the Barabel until he grew tired of the sport and severed the man's head from his body. As far as he cared, the fight was over. And he had a feeling it was only a matter of time before the police got there. A fight like this...was too big to be ignored. It was time for them to scatter. At the raise of his hand, Maul watched as his entire group, minus Simba, melted into the alley.

After a few seconds, he followed, too.


	5. Shadows of the Galaxy

Maul knew the slums of Coruscant like the back of his hand. Whilst training, he had never gone out of the old zoo building he'd been housed in. Why? His Master had forbidden it and Maul feared that man more than he feared Death himself. There was very little he could do but obey the man who had taken him from Dathomir as a tiny child and then raised him to be a weapon. The only thing he could have done was bide his time and wait until the time was right for him to escape. And it wouldn't have been much better on his homeworld. Maul knew that Nightbrothers were often abused there, too.

The dirty streets were home underneath his boots as he walked. Simba padded at his side, eyes glowing like twin embers. Coruscant was a dangerous place at the best of times and little knew what lay in the streets. Soleilin battle dogs and tigers were nothing compared to a wampa or a vermook. The dogs could at least be socialized and many an exile had walked away from looking at a massive, eight foot long tiger. But the others? The others would eat people and often did. Maul just hoped to be very far away when the roaming packs of anoobas ran afoul of the vermook living another few streets down. The red Zabrak smiled to himself. Which was better? A narglatch or a battle dog?

Maul much preferred the cat, thank you very much.

Simba growled a little bit and butted his head. The red Zabrak turned around, looking for the source of the sound. The others were nowhere in sight and he couldn't feel anyone else. The red Zabrak closed his eyes and concentrated. There was nothing in the Force but the slightest bit of warning. He frowned and cocked his head. One hand fell to his saberstaff and the other clenched into a fist to throw lightning. He had no idea what was going on here. Could a Jedi sneak up on him? He hadn't trained as a Sith for long. And yet...he was an unknown face, too.

"Put the hilt down and no one gets hurt." A red haired man, his face wises and kind, appeared from the shadows. Simba snarled, but Maul held him back with one hand. The cat growled again, his neck frills flared out. The man sighed a little, his hair shoulder length and flowing. Maul took a step back, looking for escape routes. "I wouldn't go that way if I were you. You might fall in the sewers."

"I've already been for a swim," Maul retorted. He threw that one out there and looked around. He could see the old pirate, Hondo, and gave him a curt nod. Well, what else did he expect? The pouch was still heavy on his waist. "Are you tracking that thing?! I looked in there...all it is is just a few credits, a gun, and a stupid box that I couldn't get open!" Maul jumped back, fully ready to get in a fight. Instead, he drew the jeweled box from the sack and waved it in front of the Jedi and the pirate. "Get a good look at it, ya sleemos! Because this will be the last you see of it!" Maul hurled the box as far as he could, confident that it would land in the sewers. The Jedi yelled ad rushed him.

Maul darted back and the saberstaff flared to life. He swung it at the Jedi and almost severed his head from his body. The Jedi, down to just a sword, was forced to block as best he could. Maul snarled and shoved him back with the Force, right into a nest of hawkbats. The man yelled and jumped up. He batted the creatures away from his head and rushed Maul again. The young Zabrak slammed him back, sending him into a crate. Te pirate was wise enough to stay out of the way, watching it all with an amused look. A green lightsaber almost took Maul's head off. Maul doused one end of his staff and parried the blow back. The Jedi jabbed again and Maul felt the burn of it.

Simba screamed a battle cry and Maul saw what was going to happen, too late.

"Simba! _No_!"

But it was no use. The massive cat, seeing the fight as a threat to his pride, surged into the battle. He snarled and rushed at the Jedi, slashing him with huge claws. The Jedi wasted no time in bringing his lightsaber around and slashing the cat through the chest. Simba fell with a large groan and landed heavily. Blue black blood flowed down his chest and soaked the silky fur. Maul dropped his staff and flung his arms around the dying cat's neck. Simba raised his head once more, the light in his golden eyes dimming, and butted his hand.

Maul watched as that great head fell, as if it were in slow motion. He heard someone scream and only just realized that it was himself as he heaved the cat's head up. It just lolled limply in his arms and Simba didn't purr or tease as he once might have. Instead, the cat just lay there and the light was gone from his eyes. His short black fur, grey from age and scars, cooled quickly. Maul stepped back, shaking, and looked at the cat. He didn't seem to care that Simba's blood streaked his front or that he was crying. Instead, he just fell to his knees.

"Simba..." In those few seconds, Maul wasn't the hardened Warrior he tried so hard to be. Instead, he was the sixteen year old boy he should have been , crying over his lost pet. Yet...Simba had been more than that. He had been a companion and the glue that helped hold their little band together. Had his life really been worth a pretty box with a fascinating lock? Maul had allowed a moment of childishness to take everything he loved.

The Jedi tipped his head up. "Why...he's just a boy!" Maul couldn't bring himself to care as those hot green eyes looked him over. "He's no older than my padawan."

"And I think our service is concluded," Hondo quickly said. He stepped back fast and looked over at Maul. "He's got the devil in his eyes, that one does!"

"Last time I checked, the Weequay were no Shistavanen." Maul jerked his head up, breathing harsh. "So don't call me a devil! Call _him_ a devil!"

The Jedi just shook his head and pulled Maul up. "I have no idea who you are, son, but it might be best if you go back with me. I'll make sure that your pet gets a proper burial."

Maul shook his head. "He loved the canal." What else could he do but go with the Jedi?


	6. The Temple

What could Maul hope to expect, being taken by the Jedi like he was? At a very early age, he had been taught that the Jedi were ruthless, evil killers who delighted in destroying the lives of the Sith. He had learned how the Jedi had destroyed an entire Order, the Black Knights of Morubund. How they had decimated the Order of the Shadow. Why Liria had been created. How the Wards on Tyre and Sidon, that only allowed the pure of heart to go through, had been created. It had all been to protect the Sith from the marauding Jedi.

And this long haired Jedi had just killed his pet. Granted, he could have never truly trusted Simba the way one might trust your dog, but that narglatch had still been a very big part of his life. Maul swallowed as he walked. The Jedi had his staff, looped over his back in much the way Maul always carried it. Well, maybe that was because Maul had added the carrying strap, too. It allowed him to carry the weapon under his poncho or rain hoodie. Much as it irked him, if he carried the weapon out in the open, people thought he was a Jedi.

Maul hardly noticed as they walked from the dusky twilight of Coruscant's underworld into the brilliant light of the Jedi district. Maul blinked suddenly, stunned by what he saw. It was such a far cry from the world he had once lived in he was stunned. Lush, green gardens threatened to spill from their edgings into the street before them. It was wide and clean, small fountains bubbled in nooks and crannies. Maul gaped, open mouthed, as more people in loose brown robes milled around. He shook his head and pinched himself. Was he dreaming? Could he truly believe that the clear, blue sky was over him, that it wasn't a holographic projection? Maul could hardly hear the chatter and chaos of the streets behind him. He was stunned, perhaps wary of the place he was leaving behind.

The Jedi chuckled a little as he noticed Maul's distress. "It's a little much to take in, isn't it?"

He nodded. "I really miss my cat, though...he'd been with my for years..." Maul looked down, ashamed to cry. As his Master had told him, so many thousands of times, Sith did not cry. Not even if their Master beat them half to death, a Sith did not cry. He never did, he simply bit his lips and took the burden. But so close to the enemy and so shaky that he knew he couldn't fight, the young Zabrak knew he had little to no hope for the future. He would **die**. These Jedi were going to kill him and there was nothing he could do about it. They were going to kill him much the same way as they had killed his beloved Simba. Just the thought of his space panther almost made Maul want to cry. He was a failure, wasn’t he?

The older Jedi sighed and took him over to a small bench. Maul stood, unsure of what to do. “You may sit,” the Jedi gently said. Maul sat, still unsure. The Jedi took his weapon from his back and looked it over. “This is a rather unusual design, son. Where did you get the idea?”

“The Force told me,” Maul stiffly replied. And that was the truth of the matter. The Force had told him and Maul had followed its will. It had seemed so right, creating his staff like that. “The first few blew up, but I soon learnt how to do it right.”

The Jedi nodded. “My name is Qui-Gon Jinn. And while I know what your Master told you, as I myself am highly familiar with the Sith, we do not go around just killing people. I’m of the opinion that we need to live and let live. The galaxy is a big place. As long as no one tries to kill everyone and take it over, I’m fine.”

Maul snorted. “You must be popular at the Temple.” He had to bury his sadness and move on. Simba was dead. What could he do to change that fact? He looked over and noticed a man, tattooed with a vee of laurel leaves, being dragged by a very large Besalisk. It was clear from the way he was struggling that the man didn’t want to go and he was trying to get away. Maul snarled low and curled his hands into talons.

Jinn stood up. “Let him alone, son.”

“My name is _Maul_ ,” the Zabrak hissed. He turned and ignored the Jedi. Maul took off in an instant, following the turmoil and terror in the Force. Why wasn’t the Jedi doing something about this?! If he said that the Jedi were good…

The creature smacked the man in the face, sending him sprawling. “What did I **_tell_** you about putting those freakish designs on your armor?! You are not Mandalorian, you are a clone! Now act like one and scrub it off!”

The man picked himself up. Blood dripped out of his nose and down his face, but defiance sparked in his hazel eyes. “Shaak Ti said we could, Krell.”

“That’s _General_ to you,” the Besalisk hissed. “And either you apologize right now, or I’ll habe to send you back to Kamino for termination.”

“Leave him alone!” Maul slashed Krell in the back with his claws. The Besalisk whipped around and aimed a punch at him. Maul felt the Force whirl around Krell and gagged, as it was tainted with a darkness so foul that he’d almost forgotten it existed. The young Sith yelled and slammed him with the Force. Krell staggered. The man got up and ran, his tail between his legs. Maul bent the Force to his will and used it to throw Krell into a fountain.

The Besalisk surged up. He moved far faster than the young Zabrak thought was possible and grabbed Maul around the neck. Maul screamed and tried to get away, but it was no use.

“Now,” the Besalisk hissed, “you’re going to tell me _everything_.”

 


	7. Pong Krell

It took Maul maybe half a second to snap into action. The man with the tattoos had jumped away and Maul understood why. The last thing he wanted to do was get caught up in a fight. That was understandable, because Maul was going to teach this Besalisk a thing or two about treating people right. He drove his elbow into the alien's gut and slashed his three inch long talons down his side. The alien screamed in pain. Maul took that chance to wiggle out from under him and activate the staff. Jinn looked stunned when he saw his empty hands. Maul ignored that and lunged, the twin beams of light, one red and one blue, slicing through the air. The Besalisk drew his own weapons, four yellow blades, and charged.

Maul slashed at two of the blades with his staff and jabbed with the Force, making him fall back. The alien hadn't thought Maul could wield both the Force **and** his chosen weapon, if the look on his face was anything to go by. Maul grunted and charged, making the alien fall back. The beast slashed at him again. Maul darted aside. He shoved the alien with the Force again. But this time, he knew it was coming, and hurled it right back at him. Maul endured his own volley and slashed at the man's head. They danced in a circle, weapons coming within inches of each other. The lunged and darted, blocked and parried. Both males were going at it with the intention to kill. Maul slashed one saber in two and kicked the smoking pieces aside. He was just about to strike when golden lightning slammed into his body.

The red Zabrak screamed and crumpled. Images assaulted him--his Master, throwing him into the walls with the Force. His lightsaber exploding. Blue lightning covering his entire body and the burning just not stopping and it going on and on and on...he wasn't aware that he was screaming, that the Besalisk had grabbed his fallen blade and doused it, or that the man was cowering against the wall. All he knew was the nightmare he was locked in and the burning that covered his entire body. It hurt. **It hurt**. Oh how it _hurt_...

"Don't kill him!" The man grabbed Maul's body and tried to shield him. "Don't kill him! Please! I'm not worth the death of an innocent man!"

"Krell!" Jinn must have done something, because the agony stopped. Maul opened bleary eyes and found that the man had pulled him close. He was crying softly, holding Maul close. Maul managed to raise his head and looked over at the elder Jedi. "They've learned enough! And unless you want Shaak Ti on your case for torturing one of her clones, I suggest you back off. And this **will** go to the Council!"

Krell glared at him before taking one of his remaining blades. "So you're standing up for a Sith and a worthless _meat bag_?!" He turned his head and spat on the ground. Maul called out with the Force and started trying to grab his weapon. It didn't take a mind reader to tell what was about to go down. The staff wiggled from where Krell had just thrown it. "That's so like you, Jinn. All you ever do is drag home useless **strays**! Or you coddle the soldiers. Or you're going around saving Sith. Do I need to remind you exactly what the Sith Purebloods did?"

"That was a thousand years ago, Krell," Jinn sighed. "I'm pretty sure that Maul isn't a Sith pureblood. For one thing, he's too small and skinny." Jonn doused his lightsaber, a bad move on his part. Maul could feel the darkness in Krell's soul and it made him want to gag. For all he knew, the alien ran slave trades or something. But he could tell that something bad was about to happen. "Just let it drop. I promise you, one skinny little Zabrak with the Force isn't going to destroy the rest of the galaxy."

The Besalisk activated his lightsaber and the yellow light looked sickly against the grass. "You have no idea, do you? You really don't."

"Krell, I'm sure we can talk this out." The Jedi sounded like he was pleading, not that it would do much good. Maul grabbed hold of the man's shoulders, making sure not to hurt him with his claws, and reached for his lightsaber. It wiggled a little stronger. The two Jedi had to be throwing him off. "We can take this to Master Yoda. But I'm not letting a kid  die on the streets. Trust me, I know what it's like to be hungry."

Maul grabbed his staff and activated it, swinging the weapon around just in time. Krell lunged at Jinn and Maul jumped in front of him. He screamed when one of the other blades sliced at his arm, but deflected the one heading for Jinn's head. Jinn yelled something and lunged, but it was too late. Maul screamed and fell in a heap, his blood splashing out and hitting the rocks. It was all he could do to stay on his feet,  to not fall as he swayed. Hr could hear yelling, could hear the screams as Krell attacked Jinn and the yells of the others Jedi.

The man he had saved pulled Maul into his lap. "Please don't die...please don't die on me...I'm just a clone..."

Maul blinked and looked at him before passing out. "I think you're rather cute." And that was when he decided to pass out.


	8. I'm No Hero

Maul wasn't sure what happened. All he knew was that he hurt all over. Not in a way where he thought that things were just going to start dropping off, but in a way that made him feel like he was going to just keel over and die. After all, he had never fought a Jedi before. Jinn had just rolled over like most Jedi dogs did, but the Besalisk, Krell...he had just gone after Maul like an anooba went after raw meat. The big Zabrak groaned a little, though, and picked himself up inside the hospital room. He did feel bad. Maul jut wanted to go back to sleep and not wake up. He hurt _that_ much. Maul felt a soft pang, though, as he looked over and didn't see Simba. All he had going was the hope that his cat had gotten a burial. At the very least.

A very tall humanoid woman entered the room where he was sitting. She checked the bandages over the stump of his left arm, her light green gaze calm and comforting. Maul relaxed back. He could tell that she was just a doctor. She didn't wish him any pain, just that she had things she needed to do. He was jut another patient to her. She had a strange headdress, grey with darker bands and a large charm covering her head. Her skin was a light sea green color and her lips a few shades darker. Maul watched her with some measure of curiosity. She was very calm with him, though, and adjusted a few places where the blood had clotted the cloth to his skin. The Jedi didn't seem to be interested in chopping off his head. It was nice.

She laughed softly. "I'm a doctor. I save lives--I don't end them." She brushed over one of his horn, concerned. "It looks like you have some kind of residual trauma around the base of your horns." Maul saw that a few tufts of white hair had escaped from her headdress. "Can I ask how you got those? And...are you having bad headaches? Our other resident Nightbrother seems to think that horn injuries can cause them."

Maul blinked. "Who are you and who's the guy that Krell tried to kill?"

The doctor shook her head. "My name is Rig Nema. And the clone Krell tried to kill calls himself Dogma." She pursed her lips. Maul looked at her and liked what he saw. She was a little bit older than he was, yes, but she was already a doctor. Who would have cared enough to teach Maul how to do things like that? He had always thought that he would have liked to be an engineer. Droid making was fun. "He survived, yes.  A few scrapes. Nothing serious to require medical treatment. Qui-Gon Jinn and Krell weren't as lucky." Rig shook her head. "Qui-Gon is dead."

It felt like his heart had broken. Maul looked at her in horror. "He's... _dead_?" Maul couldn't believe it. He shook his head, looking at her like she had just told him that the stars were tiny specks of light that danced to music. "Qui-Gon Jinn...he's dead?" He dropped back, fighting the tears. What had he done to deserve this? Maul had tried to be a good person when he wasn't with his Master. But this was so much to take in... "What about Krell? Please, tell me he's dead?"

"Dogma shot him." Rig shook her head. "He's being held with Tup. Tiplee seems to want to destroy both of them for killing a Jedi. If you want to do some good in the galaxy, I suggest you get up and save both of them. Clones never leave their _vode_ behind."

Maul gave her a cocky smile and got up. He felt strange without his arm, but he could do it. Maul had once fought on Corg Hive Seven blinded. He'd killed a wolf worm _and_ the Bando Gora. Along with half a dozen gangsters who really thought that Maul was look good with their babies. He'd killed all of them, some just out of spite. "How 'bout a kiss for luck? Not often I get to have a pretty one like you patching me up."

Rig cleared her throat. "I'm a Jedi, so no. But I'll give you your staff back. And interesting design. I've never seen one like it." She disappeared for a moment and came back, holding his staff. Maul grabbed it with the Force and turned on the blue side. He had an idea why she wanted Tup to survive, too, and he was going to try to play the cards right. Maybe the fact that he had always liked Dirk was just a fluke. Hopefully, he was normal and he would like girls like he was supposed to. Despite the fact that Maul had always kind of liked boys better than girls... He shook his head and grinned at her. "You'll need me to help you get out of here."

"Damn, if you like me so much, just kiss me!" Maul held his one arm wide. "Alright, where are they?"

Rig looked like she was trying not to slap him. "As far as I know, they're both in isolation cages. Clones are usually destroyed back on Kamino, but we are equipped to destroy them here." She looked at some of the things with disgust. "And before you ask again, try it and I'll slap you. I'm not in the mood and I never will be." She did something with her comm and two holograms shot up. "And the worst part is, they're shipping Krell off to the Far Rims. Nothing is going to happen to him." Rig picked a way to walk and gestured for him to follow her. Maul did, still grinning like a loon.

Well, who wouldn't if they were doing illegal things with a hot alien chick?

Maul really didn't know his way around the Jedi Temple, but he could follow real good. He just wanted to grab Dogma and get out of here. Rig was probably looking for a ship, too. Well, Maul couldn't fly. He hoped one of the clones could. This was what Maul loved about being free. He could pretty much do what he wanted when he wanted. And if it meant going off half cocked and pulling stupid shit...he could go off half cocked and pull stupid shit.


	9. Renegades

Maul was a little unsteady on his feet as he walked. He felt very off balance, mostly because his left arm was gone. The Zabrak felt...unnerved? Was that the word? He hated it and it scared him. All Maul wanted to do was just get this done and _over_ with. Hopefully with Dogma. Tup and Rig were just after thoughts. They really weren't that important to his whole operation. He could probably just get along without them. But the Jedi woman cleared her throat and swung a bright yellow lightsaber at him, just as they were about to go dashing down to the lower levels.

The red swore softly. "You heard that, didn't you?" Maul wanted to slap himself. Shielding his thoughts had never been his strongest point. His Master had often struck him with lightning for the things he thought. Maul had tried to get better at his shielding, if i only to stop the pain. But he had never been able to master it. His Master often said that Maul was like a rampaging bantha in a china shop. He was loud, proud, and more than capable of getting his way into trouble. Well, he was certainly going to take thing into a whole new level with this stunt. He took off down the halls, throwing all caution to the wind. The blue side of his lightsaber flared like a beacon to the Force. Maul couldn't have cared less. Something was calling him to Dogma and he was going to make sure that the little clone was okay.

Rig ran beside him. The Jedi woman was lean and fit, something Maul expected. He tried to ignore her, though. The ground seemed to fall away under him and he charged through the rest of the area. A few of the Jedi saw him and screamed. Maul's heart tore. He missed Jinn. Even though he'd only known the man for a few hours, Jinn had been like the father he had never had. Maul would never know his family. For all he knew, they had been killed when he was taken. Maul...didn't like that. He'd once thought that he had a mother, a woman named Talzin, but Maul dismissed it as a childish fantasy.

The green skinned woman pointed down a narrow hall. Maul snarled softly as he slipped inside. He looked down it, noting the wiring and the way that it looked like they were underground. He could feel the hawkbats, fyrnoks, and silica slugs going about their lives in the tunnels that ran directly parallel to the Temple's foundations. Maul filed that information away for later. He slipped through the area, looking through it. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, but Maul would know it when they saw it. He bit his bottom lip and pressed forward. Rig was as silent as a ghost beside him. The Zabrak didn't like this, one bit. He could **feel** the misery seeping through the air. Most felt like it was coming from the young man with the tattoos.

They stopped in front of a row of cells. A red skinned Mikkian crossed her arms as they started to approach the two shackled clones. Rig took starpoint. Maul let her. He wanted to slash the cell doors open and just run, but he couldn't. All he could do was wait and watched as the Lannick woman did her part.

"Tiplee." Rig lowered her lightsaber. "It's not his fault. I ran a scan over his brain. It looks like there's a computer chip implanted inside." She gave the other woman a gentle smile. Tiplee said nothing. She just tensed, waiting for the kill. "It's not the Jedi way to kill, my friend. We were in the same Padawan pack, remember? You were my Knight and I was your healer."

"He killed my twin." Tiplee spat over her shoulder and flicked her lightsaber. A long beam of bright blue light shot out of the weapon. Maul put his at the ready. " _He killed Tiplar_! He has to pay for his crimes! If the average **rogue** ," she spat the word, "kills a bounty hunter in a bar, there's a trial! He killed my sister! He killed a Jedi, just like that worthless defect in the cells right beside him!"

Dogma flinched at those words. Maul wanted to comfort the clone, but now was not the time.

"Then let him have a trial." Rig doused her lightsaber and looked down. "It's the right thing to do, Tiplee. You know as well as I do that you couldn't live with yourself if you killed an innocent man. And he's innocent! It was that karking **computer chin** in his **head** that _made_ him go mad! You can't deny a **man** a right to a fair trail! The clones are fighting this war for us! What's it going to do to the younglings, being told that _**men**_ are _meat droids_?!"

_This is not going to go well._

Maul tugged at the lit saber. "While I hate to interrupt the first inaugural Save the Clones convention, I do have to remind you that we're in the middle of a rescue mission." Maul lit his staff and pointed the butt under her chin. "And I, for one, am not opposed to just cutting off your head and stealing the clones. Either we do this the hard way or the easy way." He cleared his throat and glared at the red Mikkian. "Which is it?"

Was he at all surprised when Tiplee almost _threw_ both clones at him? Or when Rig and Tup kissed? Maul just rolled his eyes and started carrying his broken, battered defect to the surface. Maul was still and cold in his arms. His chest still rose and fell with breath, but he was dying. And that scared him. But he just carried the clone along with them, trying to get out. The last thing they could afford now was a capture.

Tup smiled when he showed them a secret passage out. "I cleaned every inch of this place. I know everything there is to know about the Jedi Temple."

"Less talking, more escaping." Maul was the first through, holding Dogma all the way.


	10. Escape

It turned out that the Jedi had their own private hanger. Complete with a collection of ships that would have made Maul drool had it just been him and Rig. They could have even picked one to enjoy a...good time in. The red Zabrak had, on occasion, scrawled Sidious' private comm number in a seedy bathroom stall with the "for a good time, call Sifo-Dyas" tag line. It probably _wasn't_ funny if you were on Sidious' end of things. Maul, ever the passive aggressive little shit, probably enjoyed that one just a little too much. He also decided that he rather liked having his nuts intact, so he didn't elaborate on his musings. Even though Rig was giving him a look like he was some creature right out of a horror film.

Well, he did only have one arm. There was that. So he had the whole "maimed by zombies" thing going on. Or whatever craze had swept through Coruscant.

Maul brushed back Dogma's sweaty hair as he picked a ship. The little clone was light in his arms, far too light if you asked Maul. He tried to ignore Tup, who was looking at Maul like he had just grown three head and announced to the entire galaxy that he had two pissers. Well, he was a Sith. He stole stuff. And Maul had earned this ship with his tears, sweat, and blood. Didn't all teenage boys dream of growing up and playing Grand Theft Starship for real? And here Maul was, about to steal a ship for the greater good. He tucked a sweaty Dogma into a bunk and hurried up to the bridge.

"The code is "flight code", by the way." Maul plopped himself in the Captain's seat and ran a system's check. Tup was still looking at him. "What? Last time I checked, my anatomy is still correct."

"I'm not even going to ask what you meant by that." Tup looked like he was trying not to gag. "But I hope you know that you're about to take off with the Chancellor's ship. And the entire Republic Navy is going to try to shoot fire and death at our heads. Just a thought, mind you. It's just a thought. Because I did not have Rig smack me upside the head with a blaster butt, just to die."

"Ahh ahh ahh." Maul shook his finger in front of the clone's face. "Stealing is the Sith way. I'm just graduating from enough credits for a sno cone to a top of the line, speed demon, hot rod starship. Now tell me you don't want to fly this piece of machinery!"

"Please tell me you can _fly_."

"Buckle up, boys and girl!" Maul cracked his knuckles and wrapped them around the yoke. He keyed in the codes with his free hand and grinned as the roof cracked open. Sunlight flooded in the little hangar. Rig was with Dogma, probably trying to see if he was okay. Tup just took the co-pilot's chair. Maul gave him a cheery grin and gunned in. The ship _ripped_ her way out of the dock slip, sending pieces of metal flying all over the dock. Tup yelled and tried to get cover. But they were on the ship and that was about all they could do. Maul revved the ship up. He sent her flying through the gap and flipped her sideways. The twin wings on the ship struck the retreating metal walls and sent out twin showers of sparks.

Maul whooped. He flipped the ship over twice, her internal gyros keeping her steady. Tup looked at him like he was crazy. Maybe he was, but Maul didn't care. He flipped her over a little more. He pulled the ship in between two narrow buildings. Behind them, probe droids slammed into the glass walls. Shards of glass sprayed through the air. Maul heard the sirens. He just didn't care. He banked the ship sharply and dipped into the stream of traffic that took the ships through the lanes. Maul dropped her a little lower than all the rest. Ships of all types, Polaris, Firesprays, Caravels, freighters, they all jockeyed for space in the narrow lane. Maul dipped his ship down just a little more. He pulled her up sharply, just as a pair of police speeders came screaming to the scene.

A massive Polaris, her wings drooping from the cargo, almost clipped him. Maul jerked his ship to the side. He whipped her sharply left before taking her right up. What he was doing was weaving--and making sure that they couldn't track him through traffic. He grinned a little before he took her straight up. The ship broke atmosphere in a matter of seconds. A few puffs of clouds surrounded the nose, just as he broke the glowing sphere around the planet. Maul looked over at Tup. The clone clutched the secondary yoke, his knuckles white.

"You drive like a shiny." Tup picked himself and shook his head. "I thought we were gonna get smashed on the side of that Polaris!"

Maul chuckled. He stretched himself out and punched in the first coordinates he could think of--Nar Shadda. "Which one? Or when we flipped between those buildings?" He grinned at the man before he sat back down. Tup just glared at him. "Alright, alright. I won't scare you like that. I'll just let you be. But I thought you would like the flying! Aren't clones supposed to be fearless?"

The clone shook his head. "We're not fearless, Maul. I know I'm not. We get scared a lot. Or at least I do."

Maul understood. He got scared a lot, too. He just hid it better. But he was worried for Dogma. The little clone was special to him. Dogma had tried to save him. That meant a lot to the Zabrak. As much as he wanted to understand why he wanted the little clone...he just wanted Dogma to be okay.


	11. Getting to Know You

Maul was worried about Dogma. The clone had been very small and light in his arms, almost too light if you asked Maul. There was no telling what had been done to him in the bowels of the Temple. His Master always said that Maul could be either breeder or gladiator. He never said which, though. Over time, Maul had come to think that it had been little more than a threat. Though you never knew with his Master. There had been another apprentice, another Zabrak named Koro, but he was long since gone. Maul just remembered a few snatches of song and the feeling of being comforted. Dogma needed that night now. He needed to be held and loved on. Why that long lost apprentice cared about him was anyone's guess.

He slipped into the medical bay. Maul looked around for a few moments before he saw the clone, huddled up under a few blankets. This close, he could see how tired the clone looked. How sallow his skin was and the thinness of his face. Dogma needed a few good meals in his body. The clones were too skinny if you asked him. Maul wanted them to have whatever they needed. What army marched well if it didn't have the food and water it needed to survive? Maul had nightmares about the time his Master had starved him for three days straight. Just to see if he was strong enough to keep training as a Sith. Maul had done his best, done all he could, but his Master had still watched as he tried to fight. He had failed, lying in the blood and cracked circuits of those he defeated. 

Dogma rolled over after a few minutes, hazel eyes meeting gold. "Hey. You actually got me out of there." He pulled himself up and coughed. Maul frowned. He rubbed over the clone's chest. Dogma took a deep breath after a few moments. "And I thought you were just gonna leave me. It's not like Rig ever really ever came back for Tup. And they did more than just save each other, if you get my drift."

Maul plopped himself on the bed and grabbed his comm. "Rig said you might like it if I read to you. Can I ask why? Is it just a clone thing or..." It was a bad thought, but what if Dogma couldn't read? The clone was just a normal. He wasn't an ARC like Tup was. He didn't have anything to protect him like the higher classes did. The Fis, Niners, and Hardcases of the galaxy had adoring fan clubs. Clones like Dogma were left behind and forgotten. "I won't do it if you don't want me too." Maul looked at the clone with fresh eyes, surprised by the ferocity he felt. "I just...I don't know."

"That would be lovely," Dogma murmured. He leaned back, head on Maul's lap, and looked up with innocent eyes. The clone gave him a shy smile. "I like adventure stories. I never got to touch a book, but I loved it when Shaak Ti read to us. It felt...it felt like I could escape the galaxy. Like I could be something other than a cloned soldier. The same face on several million bodies, ya know." He touched Maul's remaining arm why shy fingers. Maul smiled. He leaned down and kissed Dogma's forehead. The clone squirmed a little. He offered up a quick smile, though, and curled back.

Maul squinted at the words on the page before he started to read. Tup had given him a book with stories in it, mostly for young boys, and Maul started reading him a story about lions. It was a little bot of a stretch, talking about a prince and how he killed his uncle to take his rightful place as king (Maul was sure prey animals such as meerkats and warthogs didn't like lions), but Dogma seemed to enjoy the story. After several chapters (they had gotten to the place where the hyenas tried to kill the young prince), Dogma fell asleep. And he stayed asleep. All draped over Maul's shoulder like a sack of lead potatoes. It took the Zabrak a minute before he realized that he wasn't going to move any time soon.

He awkwardly hugged the clone. Dogma smiled in his sleep and pressed into the motion before he snuggled even closer. Maul smiled a little. He...liked this? It felt warm and safe, like he knew someone was going to watch over him. Dogma was asleep, too. He held the clone close to him. Maul brushed through his hair, watching as the silky, black strands fell through his fingers. He liked this. It felt very strange to him, knowing that he was touching body hair. Like armpit hair, just in a different place. Maul himself had no hair. It was very strange, to be touching hair. Maul thought he liked how it felt to him.

The Zabrak started purring and promised himself that nothing would harm his Dogma. **Ever**.


	12. I Tried, Okay?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Darth Maul tries to make pizza  
>  
> 
>  
> 
> And fails. Horribly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is partly because I made pizza today and partly because of Twin Suns. I cried, okay? So much of my life has been tied up in Maul...
> 
> And he's dead. It's so sad...

There was one bad thing about having two clones on his old Master's ship. Zabraks were _carnivores_. They ate meat and enough plant life to keep the poops coming regularly. Humans (and clones) were _omnivores_. They could eat stuff like like sweet rolls that would make Maul barf. Badly. And spray his guts out. Or have the runs until he wished he _was_ dead. Maul had learned the thing about the sweet rolls the hard way. He'd made himself sick off them when he was an Apprentice. His Master had thought that was a wonderful way to teach a young Maul self control. Go out, go buy the thing that was dripping in frosting and all sorts of edible flowers. Maul, being a ten year old, snatched it from him and wolfed the whole thing down in about three bites.

And spent about three hours hunched over a toilet, barfing. He actually thought he'd die. And would have been happy to do so. Maul had lost about three days from the sickness. And then he stole his Master's comm, just so he could research what had happened to him. Maul had always had a little bit of an upset stomach from his Master's "meals" of protein bars. It took him a little bit to realize that it was because he was a carnivore. A meat eater. He didn't need all that useless junk a human did! And that was why he got sick. He needed minerals he wasn't getting. Maul had started hunting, mostly to supplement, and it had turned into practice. He ate a lot of rats in those days. Killing a hawk-bat was considered a delicacy.

Maul squinted at the cookbook before he started measuring out the ingredients. Gluten free flour was a wonderful thing. He measured out what he needed for that and set out to mixing the dough. Tup ate more in one sitting than he ate in an entire day. So he pushed that in the oven and started looking through what he needed. After it was baked, he slathered the crust with spaghetti sauce (the good kind. The kind that a Zabrak could eat, meaning it was heavy on the veggies) and added in cheese. Maul could manage that in small doses. He looked through the cookbook and grabbed the peppers, pineapple chunks, ham chunks, onion slices, mushroom,s pepperoni slices, and the black olives. In a little bit of childishness, he made a pepperoni face before shoving the whole thing into the oven. That being done, he ambled off to go bother Dogma.

His little clone was very shy. He didn't like being touched, not really, but Maul was easing him into it. The red Zabrak wondered if he was scaring the other male. He couldn't ask Tup! Tup was snogging Rig in the couch! Maul had lost count of the number of times he hit both of them with a wet dish towel. Ir served up steak tartar. It seemed that humans didn't like bantha sushi in the way Zabraks did. Gee. That was such a new thing on him that he'd never heard of it! Dogma didn't think it was half as cute as Maul did, mostly because he had to eat the stuff. Maul just ate everyone's and wondered why no one else ate it. What was wrong with raw meat? Humans either boiled food into a chewy mess or baked it to a crisp!

These people needed to eat _real_ food for once in their life.

Maul ambled into the common room. The Zabrak settled down before grabbing the deck of cards. It looked like they'd just started a game of monopoly. The Zabrak grinned and grabbed his game piece--a boot. Dogma had the rubber duckie, Tup had the pistol, and Rig had the cat. Maul just shrugged and watched as the cars were set in the right places and the game began. From what Maul understood of it, you wanted to own everything by the end of it. And Maul, for the life of him, could not understand why they had those wee little bits of colored paper. They just had stupid stuff printed on them! Maul could print out better quality bills on a cheap printer! In five minutes! And make them look decent!

Tup gave him a long look. "'What are you trying to do?" He pointed at the rapidly growing pile of property cards on Maul's side of the coffee table. "I don't think you're supposed to be using the Force!"

"Do the rules say I can't?" Maul asked. He gave the other man a sly smile before making a quick property deal with Rig. She gave Tup the eye roll. "If the rules don't say I can't do something, it's perfectly legal!" He tried to ignore the burning charcoal smell from the kitchen. Well, the pizza might be a little bit crispy, but Maul had a game to win! He bit his bottom lip and made a deal with Dogma. His clone was very small against Tup. Dogma needed some feeding up and Maul was going to poke food down his little gullet. Even if he got bit. Well, maybe not. Getting bitten wasn't very fun.

Tup sniffed the air and got up. "Something's burning. Let me go see what the _di'kut_ did before he burns the ship down!" Tup got up, muttering something under his breath. Maul took the opportunity to take a peak at Tup's cards. Rig smacked him in the face with a pair of dirty socks and sent Maul scrambling for the couch. Coughing and swearing exploded from the galley area. Followed by a very strong smell of burning. "Maul! You ** _idiot_**!"

"What'd I do this time?" Maul whined. He popped a couch cushion at Dogma. Dogma rolled his eyes and stole half of Maul's cards. "Hey! That's mine! Rig! Make him give them back!"

"I didn't see anything." Rig pretended to be very interested in her comm. "Dogma? Did you steal his cards?"

"Nope." The little clone was grinning too widely, though. Maul just rolled his eyes and went to go dealing with the other stuff. That just wasn't fair, was it? He got his cards stolen! And he stole them fair and square! Maul crossed his arms and huffed. He just had a hard lot in life, didn't he? That just wasn't fair. Maul muttered something under his breath before he walked into the kitchen. Tup shoved a burned black pizza in his hands before he started to go through the freezer.

"You know, I hate you," Tup muttered. "Way to ruin a perfectly good pizza."

Maul shrugged and sat on the counter. "Makes good charcoal, though."

The look Tup gave him could have sent rancors fleeing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments? Please? Is anyone still reading this thing?


	13. First Kiss

Maul settled beside the other Tup, looking over his shoulder. The clone had what looked to be a big book on his lap, mostly about intergalactic trade. Routes and such. Maul wondered why he was looking at such a thing. Couldn't he read comic books like Dogma did? Though he understood that the little clone couldn't read. He was completely illiterate. Maul found this cute, at times, but also very annoying. That was the last thing he needed to do, get involved with a clone. That was what his Master had always said. The clones were just supposed to be tools for the Empire to use. They would kill the Jedi and try to take the galaxy for the Empire. Clones were made to fight, not to love. Maul had thought that clones were mindless meat droids. Dogma was so much more. He was smart and cute and funny.

He liked cuddling. Food was also good. He liked it when Maul read to him or played with his hair. His long, dark hair made a very nice contrast for the dark red skin of his hands. Maul had to be careful to keep his long claws out of the way. He was made for fighting and killing. Dogma was made to be a near perfect copy of a human. He just had the same face that several million other beings had. Dogma would be a good mate for someone else. Maul didn't think he deserved it. He might not have slept around, he might not have been with any other man before, but he could tell Dogma deserved better. Maul had trained as a Sith. He had gotten into things that would kill most human beings. Most normal people would have ran from have ran from him screaming.

He tried to purr for the other man, but Dogma pushed him aside. The clone liked to sleep curled up. With another person. Tup had Rig and usually they were doing things that Dogma probably did not need to see. Maul understood. There wasn't much he could do, though. The clone was a good person. He didn't need the thing that Maul was. He was a _Sith_. He used the Dark Side of the Force. He almost got people killed with some of the stuff he did. And that was just the stuff he got caught with. His Master had said that he was just another tool to be used. There were half a dozen apprentices just like him. And, if his Master wanted, he could have been sent to Nar Shadda as a breeder. He could have gotten Maul knocked up at any time.

Dogma twisted around him, his eyes closed. The little clone pressed into his body. He had melted around Maul like a living blanket. Maul tried purring, mostly to get the clone to move. Dogma just sighed and pressed into him deeper. Maul tried to elbow him, see if that would get him to move. The clone cracked open one hazel eye. Maul growled at him a little bit.

"Don't wanna move..." Dogma whimpered. He looked the at the other man with sad eyes. "Can you stay and be my pillow?" Maul sighed a little bit before he wiggled. Dogma made a little whining sound. Maul growled at him a little but didn't get up. His clone needed him. His clone needed a little body pillow or a heater. It would be really mean if Maul kicked him out of the bed. "You're all nice and warm. You're not fluffy, because you're really buff, but I like getting cuddles from you. You don't hurt me like my general did. My general hit me a lot and touched me in bad places..."

Maul snarled a little. "I'm never going to let him touch you. He'll die before he touches you like that. You're my clone and he's never going to touch you again." He wrapped his arms around the smaller man. Dogma gave him such a sweet smile Maul knew that he'd been duped. The clone probably just wanted to be warm. That was okay by Maul. He understood. He'd been half frozen more than one occasion. His Master liked to keep him cold. Make him tougher, or so he said. His Master said that Maul might not always be able to get his really nice shirt and his heavy cloak. So he'd been in the icy cold prison of Corg Hive Seven with only his thin jumpsuit. And the first knot he popped was for his cruel mistress.

Dogma looked up after maybe a few hours. "Can I get some breakfast?" he asked. Maul nodded after a few minutes. He got up and swung his legs over the bed before getting up. Maul took Dogma's hand. The clone smiled a little. He gave him a shy smile back before he started padding down to the kitchen. Dogma followed him. He stumbled over to the caff maker and started making himself a pot. Maul opened the unit up and pulled out the bacon and eggs. That he could cook and eat. It would be very good to get some food in him. And Dogma needed to eat, too. He'd love to be able to take care of his little clone and provide for himself at the same time. It was a Zabrak thing.

When it happened, it was so natural. Maul had his head turned towards the stove. Dogma had padded over to get a mug. Maul would never know what gave him the idea to kiss the little clone, but he caught Dogma's shoulders and kissed him. Right like a mate would. It wasn't slow and deep, not yet. It was very sweet and brief. Almost chaste. But Dogma caught his shoulders and deepened it, making the Zabrak purr happily. He purred harder and claimed Dogma's mouth slowly, trying to make the clone understand that he was safe and loved.

Dogma broke it off and smiled at him softly. "I think I could get used to this. Breakfast and a kiss? I like it...and I think I like you."


	14. Barking Up the Wrong Tree

Maul had no real idea what Tup was playing at. Sure, he understood that Rig needed something to do. She was probably exiled from the Jedi at this point. Tup had killed a Jedi, just to be saved by another. That seemed kind of odd to the Zabrak. As far as he knew, that wasn't something that you did. You didn't just kill a Jedi and get away with it. Jedi tended to be a pretty closely knit pack. Maul had never had that, not even with the gang he had joined. They had just gone along to get along. It was more to have a little bit of strength in numbers. He wasn't used to having brothers. He hadn't ever had a lover before. Dogma was something completely new to him. The clone liked it, though.

They had stopped at a smaller space station to get supplies. Rig needed something for herself. Tup wanted to see if he could get them to be a merchant ship or something. Or he wanted to join up with a crew or something. Either way, it was fun. Maul had recently discovered that Dogma had a "sweet spot". He **liked** it if you rubbed his head or traced his tattoos. Neck kisses were good, too. They hadn't gone any farther than kisses. It was still in the awkward stage. Maul liked his little clone and usually tried to keep him close. Nights were spent, curled around the other man, and often after deeply kissing the other one. Maul had actually found a small book of naked pictures. Dirk had owned it. The pictures of females did nothing for him, but he had liked the males. It made no sense to him, but he was willing to roll with it.

Dogma walked beside him, idly swinging the hand he held. Maul gave him a happy purr and walked through the mess of a space station. The sharp tang of grease assaulted his nose, as well as the stench of rust, mold, and mildew. Maul wrinkled his nose and sneezed. Great electrical cables, some thicker than Maul's wrists, had been strewn over the ground. Some of the tube lights flickered overhead. Maul watched the dark corners with quick eyes, making sure that nothing bad would threan his Dogma. Krell was still out there. The Jedi might decide that he wanted his little clone _back_. It would be up to Maul to keep him away from Dogma. He would have to get in a fight if he wanted to save his little clone.

"This is kinda weird, but I like it," Dogma said. He shrugged and looked over at the red Zabrak. "And are you sure there's ice cream around here?"

Maul nodded. "If there isn't, blame Tup. He was the one who told me about the place." He sniffed the air and picked something up in the air. He offered Dogma and grin and a quick kiss on the cheek. "C'mon! It's just up ahead!" The teenage Zabrak squeezed Dogma's hand. Dogma offered him a shy smile and started running with him. Maul let out a wild laugh and raced through the crowds. Dogma followed close behind him. His little clone kept up quickly, but Maul was still stronger. He ran through the crowds, his boots pounding the metal deckplates. The cantina was just up ahead. Maul grabbed his little clone's hands and just kept on running. They were almost there!

The pair burst into the cantina and doubled over laughing. The owner, a portly looking Twi'lek male, rolled his eyes but grabbed the two a menu. Maul thanked him with a bow of the head. He grabbed a booth and started thumbing through the well worn pages. Rig and Tup would be there soon. Maul was just going ahead and having a "date" with his little clone. Dogma was so very shy and sweet, so innocent and naive, that Maul couldn't imagine hurting him. Maul loved the clone, he thought. His Master hadn't ever loved him and had never even allowed him to love. This one? Maul had no Master. But he had Tup and Rig and Dogma. They were a family of sorts. It was a strange thing, but he thought he liked it.

"This one looks good," Dogma mused. He pointed to one of the offerings. Maul nodded quickly. He was a little nervous, but he still liked doing this. "You want some, too?"

"Sure." Maul offered Dogma a shy smile. The clone returned it and ducked his head.

"I-I'll go make our orders." Dogma got up quickly and went to go do just that. Maul watched him with a shy little smile on his face. He had never thought he could be this happy. And to think that he had almost lost this... What if he hadn't decided to run away? What if he had decided to stay and train with his Master? What if he had decided to become a creature as foul and twisted as his Master was? Would he be sitting in a ratty cantina, waiting for a sweet treat? Or would he be doing something else? He had no way to know.

"Well, look what the cat just dragged in!" someone yelled. A Weequay dropped into the empty booth Dogma had left. Maul reared back. _Hondo_. The Weequay just laughed, though, and didn't look like he was going to start shooting. "It's a small galaxy, isn't it? I never thought ya'd be all the way out here! I thought ya were back on Coruscant, learning to be a Jedi!"

Maul shook his head. "They were going to kill someone close to me."

 _Actually, they did. It seems like I lost Simba years ago_.

Hondo  shrugged and looked over his shoulder. "Between ya and me, I think yer gonna do just fine out here. Ya don't belong on Coruscant! No, ya belong out here on the Far Rim! And yer buddy, Tup? He's gonna join with us! Just for a few weeks, though! Yer gonna be a _pirate_!"

Maul wished he would die. **This** was not going to be good. A certain red Zabrak had a bad feeling about this, though he managed to paste a smile on his face and act happy for his little Zabrak. This was going to get ugly. Maul wondered if Tup knew just what he was getting into.


	15. Yer a Pirate, Maul

Maul made sure to hold Dogma's hand as they walked through the rest of the station. Why would Tup sign them up for something like this? It made no sense to him! Maul knew that the bloody Weequay wasn't just another pirate. He was one of the most successful ones. He was also a bit of a showman and liked to impress his crew and his hostages. Maul had heard stories of how someone named Obi-Wan Kenobi and a Dooku had charmed their way out of Hondo's clutches. Maul hoped Tup could do it now. Failing that, they had a Jedi. Rig Nema was _very_ good with the Jedi mind trick and she was more than willing to use it if need be. Maul wondered if that was why she was one of the Jedi that was kept out of the public eye.

Having a "knight errant" was never a good thing if you were concerned with good PR. Hondo decidedly was **not** and simply didn't care. However, he was extremely mobile and very good at what he did, which was killing people and taking their stuff. The Jedi Order was not mobile. They lived on Coruscant, with an extremely vulnerable and extremely well known Temple. The Jedi Temple had become a land mark of the city. Maul knew from lessons with his Master that there was even a guided tour if you had enough money. Maul would have paid the price to get inside one. However, he had never been authorized to use his Master's credit card. Maul might have tried to "borrow" said credit card, if not for the fact that he could have been beaten for doing so. And that...that was never a good day.

A Rodian appeared after Maul had walked a few blocks. The male gave Dogma a passing glance before giving Maul a quick smile. The Zabrak growled. He knew when he was being hit upon and did not like it, not one bit. He set his jaw and glared at the other male. The Rodian took the hint and fell in beside Hondo and his gang of other pirates. Maul could smell Tup's scent on the other man's clothes, though, and he knew Hondo wasn't lying about _that_. But why would a pirate Lord like Hondo want to take in a pack of strays? It wasn't like the man had any goodness of the heart. Chaos only knew what Maul saw in his aura. He really did not want to think of it, either. It was...scary to him?

"Ahh. Shixan." Hondo turned to the male and clapped him on the back. Shixan bowed, producing something from his pack. Maul blinked, not sure what it was. It looked like some type of data stick, only it was very well worn and...pink? What sort of pirate would carry an antique, _pink_ data stick? The Zabrak was starting to wonder if Hondo had a few screws loose. "I see you got it. Are these the maps we need?"

"Indeed." Shixan gave Hondo a sly smile. Maul started pegging him as "Most Likely to Commit Mutiny" pretty fast. As much as he disliked the male, though, he could tell Shixan served a purpose. He was not the type of man to force himself upon another, though, and for that Maul decided to let the scumbag live. For now, at least. But if he ever dared touch Dogma, then all bets would be off. Maul was no stranger to starting fights. He would do whatever it took to save his little clone. He looked at the Rodian male with cool golden eyes, making sure to memorize every aspect of the male. His scent would be a good place to start. "It didn't take that much work, actually. Fowl was very eager to hand me these maps."

"Probably to keep them away from Domovi and Scalene," Hondo murmured. Maul filed those names away for later. They could be important. The last thing he needed to do was get involved in pirate politics, though. That had a bad habit of making those involved wind up dead, if they were lucky. Maul noted a few more things about the reptilian male, mostly that he was very pale for a Rodian and his skin was crossed with scars. Hondo, though, broke his focus when he spoke again. "Good work, Shixan. I did not expect these to come so fast."

"Can I ask what they're for?" Dogma piped up. They had just approached a rather large ship. It looked like it was mostly made out of trash, giving it the look of a ship that was on it's last legs. Maul could feel Rig through the Force. She was alive, she was okay, and she knew what she was doing. Maul hoped she really did, because this could go South in an instant.

Hondo grinned. "Oh, they're just coordinates for the newest Republic base," he shrugged. "I think they need to spread the wealth around, don't you? People are starving on the streets on Coruscant. And here they are, just wasting money on a pointless war."

Dogma went almost as white as a sheet. "My...my brothers will be there!"

The Weequay shrugged. "Then it's a tough day to be them."

The clone shook his head like he couldn't believe what was going on. He grabbed Maul's shoulder for support. The Zabrak took his hand and lead him into the ship. As much as he knew that clones loved each other, Maul hadn't expected it to be this strong. Where would Maul be if he had a brother who loved him like this? Would that brother have kept him away from Sidious, even if it was almost at the cost of his life? Maul didn't know. He just knew that he was going to have to take care of his little clone. He held Dogma close to him as they walked up the ramp and into the ship. To be honest, the outside looked a lot better than the inside. Maul took one look over at the mess and muttered a curse under his breath.

"They're going to kill our brothers!" Dogma broke away from Tup, almost as soon as the smaller clone saw the ARC. He went flying across the room and wrapped shaking arms around the other clone. "They're going to kill our brothers..."

Tup sighed and held Dogma close. "I have a plan," he murmured, "a plan to save them."

Why was Maul getting a bad feeling about this?


	16. That Escalated Quickly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because I needed some Maul/Dogma smut...

Maul had to have something to do. He just wanted to _do_ something. And he didn't care what it was. He just needing to do something. The pirates didn't like it if you started messing with the supplies in the pantry. Maul knew that because he had gotten snapped at for rearranging the cold unit. But that might have been because he had hidden someone's cheap caff. Why you got the really cheap crap when you had the money for the really good stuff was beyond him. Maul just wanted to have something good and that cheap kriff just did not cut it. So he was willing to buy the expensive stuff. But enough about the caff. He needed to make sure that Dogma was taking this okay. His little clone was the reason why he hadn't flipped out yet.

Dogma smiled as they bent over the chess board. Clones were really smart. They picked up games pretty dang quick, making it a fun challenge for Dogma to go up against Unix. Supposedly, the half blind Weequay was a chess master. He'd been kicked out after he stabbed someone and just narrowly avoided getting nabbed by the cops. Unix, though, told a story where he was trying to get away from someone who had been trying to ruin his life. The woman just wouldn't go away and the Weequay temper had flared. Dogma bit his bottom lip and moved his knight. Unix raised an eyebrow as he made his moves. Dogma looked like he was holding his own, that he was able to deal with all that stuff.

The red Zabrak got up and started pacing. Rig had a happy smile on her face. She looked like she had just been with Tup, she was smiling so much. Maul wanted to _snap_ at her. She had her clone! Maul didn't have his! He didn't know how to make sure that Dogma liked him. Maul actually fretted over this. He loved Dogma. Mabe he was too underage, being only fifteen, but he had been used by his Master when he was much younger. Maul didn't care anymore. He wasn't knotting, he wasn't fertile, and he wouldn't be fertile for another five or six years. So he wouldn't have to worry about getting pregnant when he was with the one he loved. Plus...Dogma was young, too. Maul wondered if Krell had forced himself on the clone.

If he had, Maul would rip him **limb from limb**.

Dogma finished the game after a few minutes and hugged the Zabrak close. "How'd I do?" he asked. The clone was bouncing around on his heels, much like Tup did when he was happy. All clones did that, it seemed. "Well, what do you think?"

"You did wonderful," Maul purred. He crossed over and brushed a kiss over the clone's lips. Dogma smiled into the kiss and deepened it. Maul purred for him. Dogma seemed to love the purr and often asked Maul to purr for him. That made the clone feel much better, it seemed, and helped him sleep. Dogma kissed him the next time. He pulled the Zabrak down to his level and pretty much made sure that all of them knew that Maul belonged to him. Maul broke it off. He growled, eyes flashing dangerously as he looked around at them. Hondo cleared his throat. Maul looked at him with cold eyes. The Weequay took the hint after a few minutes and looked away. Maul nipped Dogma's ears gently, as a way of asking if Dogma wanted him.

"Thank you." Dogma took his hand and traced over the tattoos. "Do...do you these cover all of your body?"

Maul gave him a happy purr and took him through to the place where they slept. The red Zabrak pulled his clothing off quickly, watching as his nipples perked in the cooler air. Dogma turned from closing the door. He crossed the room quickly, placing his hands on Maul's chest. The Zabrak smiled and caught his chin with one clawed hand. "They do," Maul purred. He stripped quickly and let Dogma see _all_ of him. The clone gave him a shy smile and slowly took off his own shirt. Maul allowed his gaze to brush over the lean, tanned body. Dogma was older than him. He had his hair, something Maul never would. "You're so beautiful...how did I get so lucky?"

Dogma shrugged and nipped Maul's chin. "I honestly do not know how I wound up with _you_." The clone let his hands trace over Maul's body and tattoos. The Zabrak gave him a happy purr. This felt very good and very right. He wanted to do more of this, but he needed to take it slow. There was no telling what had been done to Dogma before all this. Maul didn't want to reopen old wounds and hurt the one who had loved him. Maul allowed Dogma to slowly move him backwards and push him on the bed. "I know we gotta use something slick. That's what Cody said after he karked General Kenobi. I remember cause he was talking to Wolffe and--"

The red stopped him with a gentle kiss. "We need bacta, if you...fully want to claim me, love." And Maul wanted to be fully claimed. Bacta was slippery enough to be used as oil for when you needed to do something like this. Maul knew this because it was what his Master had done to him. The red called to the Force and had it in his hands seconds before Dogma had gone to look for it. The clone gave him a wry look. Maul laid back, his legs open. He trusted that Dogma knew what to do. And it looked like the clone did, because he got the stuff on his fingers and started working Maul open. The Zabrak gave a slight hiss. It had been a _very_ long time since he had taken anyone. Dirk had been an interesting distraction, but he wasn't worth getting laid.

"Please tell me if you want me to stop," Dogma whispered. He pulled down his own pants. Maul saw that the man looked like he was painfully hard. The Zabrak felt like he was open enough and made an impatient noise. The clone gave him a quick smile, just as he lined up and pushed in. Maul gasped, feeling the stretch and burn of the penetration. It had been a long time since he had done this! He had forgotten how the stretch and the burn and the fullness of it all felt. And then Dogma started toying with his nipples... Maul arched his back and gave a gasp of pure pleasure. The clone was still inside him and Maul tried to grind back on him. Dogma gave him a sly smile and he moved forward.

Maul _yowled_. This felt much better than it ever had with his Master. He was letting himself get lost in the pleasure, in the way Dogma filled him inside. The clone seemed to know how to play him like a fiddle. Maul almost screamed from the pleasure of it and gave Dogma the best he could. The clone told him how tight he was, how well the red took it... Maul lost it after a few minutes and came quickly. Dogma lasted a little bit longer and came inside him. The clone was panting hard, his eyes blown. Maul offered him a weak purr as the clone tried to pull out of him.

"That was good..." Maul softly said.

Dogma kissed his cheek. "Thank you," he softly said. "Thank you, for letting me do that."

Maul purred at him before drifting off to sleep.


	17. Here We Are, Don't Turn Away Now

Maul should have known it was a bad idea. Really. He should have. Since when had the fates smiled upon him? Maul had managed to escape by the skin of his teeth! The Force as helpful as it was, was as much a hindrance as it was a help to the young Zabrak. He could have lived without the mystical space magic getting involved and making him the object of every suck pervert's fantasy. More than one of Hondo's pirates had slapped Maul on the ass or asked him if he went into heat, whatever that was. The Zabrak had snarled at them and broken a few jaws, until Hondo asked him to kindly stop breaking people, they would need all the help they could get for this job. Speaking of, it still upset the Zabrak. He loved Dogma. Maul didn't think he could kill the man's brothers.

He adjusted the scope on his blaster, making sure to look it over pretty good. It wouldn't be the first time that someone had messed with his weapons. His Master had once sent Maul deep into gang territory, armed with only a defective training saber. It was supposed to be a test of how strong the Zabrak was and how much he could take. After that _nightmare_ (most of which he blocked for the sake of sanity), he had stumbled back to his Master. Before that, Maul had never done more than touch himself to get clean in a shower. That violent experience just gave his Master a reason to use his body. Maul shook his head as he tried to focus on the mission. Tup and Rig were going to try to get the clones to defect, rather than be killed by the pirates.

"The only way out of the GAR is a body bag." Dogma dropped beside him, rubbing his face. Maul gave a happy purr and lightly nuzzled his clone. Dogma smiled and lightly pushed him. The Zabrak made a sad whining sound. Did Dogma not want him? There was so much he didn't understand about human interaction... The clone smiled, though, and wrapped an arm around Maul. "Hey, it's okay. Clones do that to each other. If we don't, we don't like you." The clone gave him a smile as he said those words and brushed over Maul's horns. The Zabrak gave a pleased purr. Dogma grinned and did it again. "You like that, huh. Well, who would have guessed it? I didn't know those things could feel!"

"Stop giving the Zabrak a high and get ready," Asa snapped. The dark haired human glared at the pair as he tromped around the loading bay. Maul sighed and slipped off his crate. By the way Asa was acting, they had found the Republic ship. That meant that Maul would be going in soon. After all, he was the "Horned Horror" for Republic propaganda. If Maul _ever_ met the person who had branded him as that, he was going to give them a piece of his mind. If they were lucky. If not...the Zabrak might actually kill them. Maul slung his staff over his shoulder and checked his pouches one last time. He had his throwing knives (never play slot machines and bet on them with a Force user) and an extra case of blaster gas, plus three fully charged powercells. Maul thought he was ready to go.

"Attention Republic Ship _Rara Averis_ , this is the pirate ship _Steel Magnolia_!" Hondo cheerfully announced. Maul got ready with the rest of the boarders. He had the feeling that this was going to go South in the blink of the eye. He readied the blaster. There was no need to use the saber and announce to the galaxy that he was still among the living. "You have exactly three minutes to surrender before we send in the boarders! But rest assured, _Averis_ , we won't pull a Terror of Cold Space and losd your ship full of brain worms! No, all we want is your cargo. Not your life. So set down the blasters and be good little boys and surrender!" Beside Maul, Dogma groaned and gave himself the face palm.

"Clones aren't taught to surrender!" he hissed to a battle scarred green Twi'lek woman. She just shrugged and went back to priming what looked like Solielian grenades. Maul didn't know if he needed to be elated that Hondo somehow got a hold of extremely banned weapons or terrified that this woman was going to cause a catastrophic depressurization incident. "This isn't going to be a fight! It's gonna be a slaughter!"

The woman popped her gum. "Tough," she shrugged. "They should have thought about that back on Kamino and given you lot the correct programming."

The _Rara Averis_ didn't seem very enthused by the idea of complete surrender. "Yeah? How do we know you're not Mayhem Shetani?" the Captain commed back. Maul looked over at the rest of his crew. It would take a damn good pilot to match the vector, spin velocity, and speed of the smaller _Steel Magnolia_ to the much larger and much better armed _Rara Averis_ , as well as marry the holds. Anything less than total concentration and skill would result in the ship exploding. Possibly both, if the attacking ship hit, say, the reactor cells, fuel tanks, engine wells, or whatever the Republic craft used to get from Point A to Point B. "I don't think we're gonna just roll over, pirate! For the Glory of the Republic!"

"Suit yourself," Hondo replied. You could hear the smile in his face. "Evan, you may fire away." Right on cue, the ginger haired GunMaster started firing away at the Republic ship. Maul could feel the _Magnolia_ start to buck and shake as the pilot started putting her through her paces. The ship seemed to be ducking and weaving and feinting and twisting and flipping that made the internet gyros go crazy and the gravity flicker more than once. Maul grabbed his straps. They hadn't had to blow a hatch, not just yet, and he would know when the airlocks married. The smaller attack frigate darted to one side. She just narrowly missed slamming into the prize. As it was, sparks jettisoned from the scraping of the hulls and fizzled out in space.

Maul stumbled as the ship took a rocky dive. She fishtailed to one side and suddenly veered to port. A small ship would be a much harder target to catch. The idea seemed to be making the larger ship use all her ammunition before dropping the boom. The boom, in this case, was a small thermonuclear device referred to as "LOVE". Or, "Look Out, Vaporize Everything". Both ships wouldn't be affected by the device, nor would the occupants. All it would do was cause the engine power on both ships to flicker, making the larger ship lose her power steering. Frigates had steering chains that worked manually. A big transported was relying upon electrons. LOVE would conquer all, in the fact that it would knock the other ship out for about five minutes.

A skilled pilot could marry airlocks in half that.

"Let her rip!" Someone yelled. Maul grabbed the railings and prayed to every god or goddess he had ever heard of that Tup's plan would work.


	18. Saving Lives

They married the hatches about five minutes after Maul realized how much of a bad idea this was. As far as he knew, they were heading right into a trap. What if his Master was waiting on the other end, just looking for a chance to yank him back? Maul didn't know what he would do if that was the case. If that _did_ happen, he would probably be like the pretty Pantoran slave his Master had came home with. The boy had been so young, fifteen at the oldest. It was clear that he was a trained pleasure slave, though, and he must have pleased Sidious quite well. He left Maul alone during all that time. The boy had escaped, though, and succeeded. He ran away and tried to get off world. When Sidious recaptured the boy... Maul had thought he would never blot out the screaming and begging from his mind. Sidious had simply turned the slave boy over to his guards and let them enjoy him.

It broke the boy's spirit. His bright green cheek markings, the one true sign of a Pantoran's health, faded quickly. He had been depressed and faded quickly. Mauk had tried to comfort the boy, promise him that they would both escape together, but it had been to no avail. Azyl died in Maul's arms. He had, quite literally, been karked to death. Pantorans were delicate slaves, requiring a lot of care before any type of sex and special foods. They had to have supplements in their diets and plenty of "sun time". Azyl didn't get that during his time with the guards and simply withered away from a lack of care. At the time, Maul had been devastated. He liked to think it was Azyl's death that steeled his resolve to escape.

Maul forced his mind back to the present. He gritted his teeth and activated the blue end of his special lightsaber. He used one blue crystal, as the other on had cracked during his last training mission. He had to use what he could find and maybe this would fool the clones into thinking he was a Jedi. Maul knew that the clones would immedietly back down if they thought he was. The hatch hissed up a few feet away from him and he watched as the pirates forced their way inside. Maul hung back, allowing the foolhardy to get the first hits. He offered them a little bot of a smile as he raced in there after that. Blaster bolts were flying through the air as pirates ducked behind crates.

Clones rushed the scene. Maul charged them, his lightsaber flashed. Someone aimed a blaster bolt at his head. Maul swatted it aside without even thinking. He lashed out with the Force, sending the man flying into the wall. He hit the steel with a cold _thud_ and and didn't move again. The hiss of a lightsaber jerked Maul from his thoughts. He jerked around, right into the familiar face of one Pong Krell. The man raced at him. Maul lit the red side of his lightsaber as he rushed into battle. He rolled and ducked, using his metal arm as leverage. The Force seemed to sing around him. Maul didn't care and just rushed at them. Krell tried to take his head off. Maul blocked the blow, but he was sent sprawling. All he could hear was the roar of battle in his own ears. His teeth were barred in rage. All he knew was that he was going to take this man down. Or else.

The clones had stood down, but Maul wasn't paying attention to them.

Krell feinted at him. Maul almost took the bait. He stopped at the last minute, right before he rushed at the other man. Krell's lightsaber just nearly grazed his shoulder. Maul gritted his teeth in pain. He ducked around, slashing and swiping. The red Zabrak sliced one lightsaber in two. Krell tried to slam him with the Force, but Maul rode out the blow. He ducked away from it. Instead, it rolled off his back and sent him into the ground. Krell crossed his three remaining blades. Maul forced himself up. He wasn't going without a fight! But instead of having to face the lizard man alone, a hail of blaster fire started from among the ranks of the clones.

"Get him!" the lead clone yelled. He was a tall man, clad in armor edged with black. He started charging the other man and instead was almost impaled by the lightsaber. Maul turned around and stabbed Krell through the back. Three more clones started shooting. Krell had been shot several times. Even a Dark Jedi like himself had to take a hit. He let out a cry of pain before he fell to the ground. A hateful golden light shone in his eyes that made Maul think of his Master. He shuddered and tried to look away. The lead clone turned from shooting Krell through the head. He pulled off his helmet and cold eyes stared back at him. Maul bowed his head at the clone.

"Are you on our side?" One of the pirates, maybe Miya, asked.

The clone nodded and kicked the dead body as he searched it for credits. "I am now. I shot a Jedi, so they sure as hell won't want me back! Even if they did, it would only be to torture me and my brothers." He stood up as he pocketed whatever Krell had on him. "My name is Cash. I'm the commander of the Blackout Squadron." He bowed his head at Maul. "Sir? What are your orders?"

It took Maul a minute before he realized that Cash was talking to him. "Uhh...get on the ship?" he suggested. Cash nodded and barked something to his men. They snapped into action quickly and started going for the ship. Maul followed and wondered how well this was going to go over with Hondo.


	19. Now What Do We Do?

Maul didn't know what he was going to tell Hondo. Sorry, but he had just taken possession of about twenty seven clones? And that he had just made them step down instead of killing them? All he knew was that Tup didn't want to have to kill his _vode_. The idea had been that Maul would use the blue end of his lightsaber and cow the clones until Tup could figure something out. The young Zabrak groaned softly as he considered what had happened. Dogma said that the Jedi used some kind of control chip to make the clones do what they wanted them to do. If the clones disobeyed the person in charge, the chip sparked and hurt them. It might not be enough to _kill_ the clones, but it was enough to make them yell in pain.

Getting zapped in the head with energy tended to do that to you.

The red Zabrak settled beside a box in the hold. He was pretty tired, now that he thought of it. Planning really wasn't his thing. Maul wasn't good at it. Maybe it was just his Zabrak blood talking, but he was much better at killing people and blowing stuff up than he was at he was at making or following a plan. Maul threw his head back dramatically and looked at the ceiling. The magic answer, sadly, wasn't written up there. He just saw a few ugly spiders and more dust than he cared to ever see. Maul rolled over. He grabbed the hem of his begged or borrowed shirt and tried not to blink back tears. _Azyl_ had been the one to first think of freedom. Not Maul. Why the two boys had bonded, the Force would never know. Maybe it was because both of them were slaves, owned by the same Master. Or maybe the Force had wanted Maul to be free and not cared why he wanted to run away.

He got up. Maul needed something to do. He never was the kind of person that could sit around doing nothing. The Zabrak quickly walked to the main holding cells. Hondo's crew had simply locked the clones away until they could figure out what to do with them. Maul had the bad feeling that the old Weequay intended to airlock or sell them. Maul growled softly. His soft boots were almost silent as he walked, a byproduct of his training to be an assassin. Maul had learned the hard way when he was very young that one had to be silent. If his Master's droids had caught him and beat him, Maul wouldn't have eaten that night. As it was, he was still thin. He had never gained the muscle mass he was supposed to for his height.

The clone commander, Patches, was sitting on the cell bed. Three other clones were beside them. Maul knew from their tattoos that their names were Streak (he had fire branding his face), Jackal (paw print on his cheek), Jay (had a bird on his forehead), Rusher (had nothing on his face, just white blonde hair), and Blaze (he had red hair). Patches had patchy brown and blonde hair. He looked like he could kill, too. That face, so similar to Dogma's, was hard and full of stone. Maul decided that he didn't like Patches. Rusher looked kind. Rusher could live. The others could die or get sold. Clone or not, Maul had had enough of dealing with foul tempered humans. Well, if his Master had even counted as a human...

Patches jumped to attention and saluted him. "Sir! What are your orders from us?"

"You can can the act." Maul dropped himself on a crate and glared at Patches. Patches, for his part, just looked confused. Maul touched the Force and saw that this was genuine, not part of an act. Oh, and Jackal thought that Miya was _very_ cute and he wondered just what was in the Pantoran woman's trousers. Maul blinked. He tried to rub those images out of his mind, but it wasn't working.

_Where's the brain bleach when you need it?_

"The act, sir?" Patches hesitated a little bit before he spoke. "Sir, when I pledged our loyalty to you, I meant it. I might have defected from the Grand Army of the Republic," Rusher coughed, made a face, and signed something to Jay. Jay laughed and rolled his eyes. "But I'm not a common dog!" Patches just rolled on like those two didn't even exist. The man stood up and gripped the bars of the cell. "Clones are programmed to _obey_ , sir. As a Jedi you should know that." Patches rubbed his face a little bit. "Sir, excuse me if I'm wrong, but...but do you even know what you're doing? We're an elite squadron! I could be leading your men into glorious victory, not sitting here!"

Maul thought that Patches was an idiot. "Lucky for you guys, I'm not a Jedi. Yeah, I have the Force and a lightsaber. I even took a vacation to the Jedi Temple. Horrible place, mind you. But I'm no Jedi and I really do not want a bunch of mind numbed idiots following me around!" Maybe in another life, if he had stayed with his Master, he would have loved that idea. But not in this life. If Maul was with his Master, he wouldn't get to have Dogma. The young Zabrak was very sure that Dogma was worth every bit of agony he had lived through. "I do not want you. That said, I'm not gonna let Hondo kill you. I just want to get those chips out of your head and get you guys out of my life."

Jay rolled his eyes. "I told you so." He glared at Patches. Patches just rubbed his face a little. Maul wondered just what that was all about. Surely Patches had control of his men! He had too! He was the guy in charge. From what Maul understood from Dogma, the man in charge was in charge and that was that. No debate, no discussion. "I told you he was gonna throw us to the wolves!"

"So," Maul continued. "I need you to tell me a little bit more about the GAR..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I anyone still reading this? If so, what are your thoughts?


	20. Of Good Intentions and Bad Flirting

Hondo let Patches and the other clones out of the brig on two conditions: First, they did not try to kill his people or steal his stuff. This was followed by a flowery and long winded speech about being gracious, most of which Maul ignored. After all, he had Dogma with him and he really did not want to deal with Patches. Especially since Patches had that weird hair that Dogma said was a defect. Then there was Blaze, with his long braids of fire red hair. If Maul was being honest, he would say that he was much more fascinated by Blaze's red hair than he was Patches'. Blaze had long hair. Patches had pretty much sheered all of his off, just so he would look _normal_. The next condition Hondo insisted upon was that the clones followed Maul as their leader.

Jay amd Maul agreed upon this one thing...Maul did not _need_ to be in charge of a group of clones. Yes, he could command his battle droids. Maul considered himself something of an engineer and he loved working on things. He could use his hands, he was very good at using his hands, and programming just made sense to him. But when it came to a bunch of living, breathing men...especially men that looked all alike...putting Maul in charge of them was just asking for trouble. He never had the best temper at the best of times, but having several clones (Patches and Crash) follow him around like little lost puppies. Patches also tried to flirt. A lot. Dogma never flirted because sweet little Dogma didn't _have_ to flirt.

"Did I just drop something?" Patches innocently asked. They had been assigned to help clean up one of the holds so the crew could put more crap in it. It would be time for Rig Neema to use her Force powers for, well, not totally evil, per say, but it was a definite change from the Jedi Code she was used to living by. Maul just ignored the clone as he started using the Force to shove the boxes over. It had been a long day and Maul just wanted to cuddle with Dogma. The last thing he needed was this annoying clone talking to him and just not shutting up. Patches looked around on the floor, a half smile upon his face. "I know what I dropped! I dropped my jaw when I first saw you!"

Maul froze mid stretch and gave the clone a blank look. "Well, you didn't lose it," he dryly said. Maul had been hit on enough times by those he could turn down to know that he was being hit on. To be honest, he didn't like it. "Just put it back in place before I break it."

Patches gave him a dark look as he stacked up the other boxes and crates. "Can you blame me for trying?" he asked after a few minutes. The odd haired clone looked at the piles and stashes of just random crap that Hondo had picked up over the years. It looked like a low end thrift shop had exploded in the hold. Blankets, obsolete comms, what looked like actual laptop computers that were worth their weight in Khyber Crystals to the right buyer, almost expired ration packs, something called freeze dried blue berries, fine silver and china...almost anything you could think of. Most of it was just sitting there and gathering dust. The best finds so far had been three golden bracelets weighing a pound each and a set of blood diamonds. Maul kept the diamonds and gave the clones helping him the gold.

"We are but one little island of order in a sea of chaos." Crash turned around and smirked at Maul. The big clone loved to wax poetic and could even recite verses he had made himself. He also had pierced his ears twelve times and had a nose stud. Crash left quite a bit to be desired. He hefted a big blue bag over his shoulder and started walking over to a junk pile. "My eyes aren't the only thing that's gonna be blue by this evening!"

"Crash!" Patches yelped.

Maul felt his cheeks burning and carefully studied the things he was working on. His long claws could shut the other man up, but he wasn't sure if it would be worth it or not. Dogma had once told him that most clones were very young on the inside and didn't really know what they were doing or saying or why people got so mad about it. The Jedi made the clones be celibate, just like they were. Kamino acted like sex never existed. A few Jedi might like a clone, but most didn't. Most saw the clones as tools to be used and then traded out for better ones. Maul trembled a little as he thought about that. His Master had used him as a tool, both for pleasure and for doing his dirty work. The young Zabrak was glad he escaped.

Crash just gave Patches a cheeky grin and walked off. "I think that's the dinner bell," he mused. "Let's go check it out!"

The Red Zabrak waited until they were gone to process why he even paid a little bit of attention to both Dogma and Patches. He had next yo no idea why his body even liked the two of them. After all, his Master had been the one to say that falling in love and things like that just made you weak. Maul sighed as he started gathering the supplies up. Dinner would be quite good. He got to eat fresh, raw meat here. That was much better for a young Zabrak than nasty human ration bars ever were! This food he could eat without getting sick and he knew it was just for him. Maul felt himself smiling a little as he followed after the chattering clones. Maybe this could work after all.


	21. Time and Time Again

Maul settled beside Dogma on the bench. Hondo had been one of those Captains who liked to eat with his men. That meant that you had two or three long tables that had benches in front of them. You had cafeteria style with all the other clones. Dogma settled beside him, smiling happily. The little clone loved food. Maul loved providing for his clone. He tried to get him food that he liked and would eat. If that meant eating gluten free spag noodles with strange tasting sauce, he would do so. He would go out and kill something for Dogma if that made him happy. A small part of the Zabrak thrummed with the idea that Dogma ate the food he, Maul, made for him. And he didn't even complain that Maul grabbed the wrong bag of noodles and made gluten free noodles rather than the normal ones that Dogma liked. To Maul, it was a small miracle that Dogma would trust him enough to eat his food.

Patches made a whining sound. The clone was sitting on the other side of him and eyed the food sitting between them. Maul had made too much food (it was an old habit of his, to over eat. Call it a hold over from the days where he didn't know if his Master would feed him that day or not.) and it was steaming. The smell had permeated the entire area. Several of the clones were drooling. Maul growled a little at them, his eyes narrowing. He didn't know what to do! The clones were hungry, yes, but he had tried to make food for his clone! What if Dogma went hungry because Maul gave all his food away? He couldn't risk harming his mate! Then Sidious would be right, because Maul would just be another useless Zabrak who couldn't do anything right...

"Maul. It's okay." Dogma pulled Maul's hand to his shoulder. "I'm not gonna be hungry." He stood up and pressed a gentle little kiss on his head. Maul look up at him and purred. He was so happy to just be with the one he wanted. There was no man to force him, no man to abuse him, no man to make him bleed and tear and scream... Maul forced himself not to shudder and nod his assent. He was okay with that if Dogma was okay with sharing his food. "Clones like sharing food with each other, okay? I'm not mad and I'm not gonna go hungry."

Maul nodded and kissed his mate's elbow. Dogma made a little gasp--he loved being nipped and mouthed at there. "If you're sure," he softly said. With that, Maul turned around and dished out his left over spag to the rest of the clones. Crash looked like he was half starved and wolfed the food down. He licked out the bowl quickly. Patches looked almost pathetic as he launched into the food. Maul watched as the other clones shyly lined up to get food. He fed all of them, too. He wanted to feed them for some strange reason. Was it because they all looked like Dogma and he had those stupid instincts to look after and care for his mate? Maul would never know. After all, Sidious had never taught him about his body beyond how to use it as a weapon.

He sighed a little bit. Maul got up and left the clones to get the rest of the food. He wasn't hungry. The Zabrak didn't want to do much more than just curl up with his mate. He was still too young to have kittens. Maul knew what he would look like when he was--he would hit a major growth spurt, he would shed his baby horns for real, long horns, and his hips would get much wider. He thought he had a few more years before he became fertile. Maul allowed a happy purr to settle in his chest as he went to look for his mate. One of the good things about being on a pirate ship was that pirates often had things like a hot tub that wouldn't make it on a normal ship. As far as Maul cared, the hot tub was heaven.

"Dogma?" Maul knocked on the door.

"You can come." The clone's voice was a little muffled from the door. Maul pushed in and was greeted with a wall of steam. Dogma had lounged back in the tub, the water just barely covering his body. He looked like he was enjoying it. Maul gave him a happy purr. He quickly shucked off his own clothes and draped himself in the tub beside the clone. The warm water seemed to caress and soothe his muscles, soaking into every pore of his body. Maul gave a **very** happy purr and settled against him. He never wanted to leave Dogma. Never wanted to be separated from his clone. Dogma grinned and draped an arm over his shoulder. "So you like hot tubs. And I thought you were the big, evil Sith?"

Maul shrugged and swirled his hands around the oddly bubbly water. "It makes my hips not hurt." Dogma gave him an odd look and Maul sighed to explain what happened. "My Master often beat me with a cane when I disobeyed. His favorite place to cane me was my _shebs_." Maul shrugged and relaxed back in the water. His golden eyes closed lazily and he purred softly. "He never liked it when I purred. That usually meant I got slapped if he heard me. The same if I growled or used my claws to fight, though that earned me the caning. He said I needed to fight like a man."

Dogma looked like he was going to be sick. "Maul. That's not normal." He pinched his nose and took a deep breath. "That's _abuse_. They wouldn't do that on Kamino!"

"But I disobeyed him," Maul softly said. He ghosted one of his clawed hands against the scars and shuddered to think of the memories. He had always been whipped for doing things his Master hated. Sidious said that was normal, that Maul should be grateful that the older Sith cared enough that he would punish Maul for not acting like a human. "I make--and made-- _animal sounds_! If I act like a dumb animal by purring and growling, that means that a human can use me like an animal." Why didn't Dogma understand? "That's why they breed other Zabraks--because they act like animals."

"No, they breed Zabraks because the Zyggerians want to make a quick credit!" Dogma yelped. Instead of scrambling away, he grabbed the Zabrak in a hug and pressed their wet bodies together. "Maul. He **lied** to you. I don't know your Master, but he seems like a class a one jerk wad to me, okay?" He sighed and ran a hand through Maul's horns. The clone seemed to be thinking. Maul, ever the cheeky bastard, darted down and lapped over his nipples. Dogma yelped and pushed him back. Then something dawned in his eyes and he looked at the Zabrak with new eyes. "Oh... _oh_. It all makes sense now..." He took a shuddering breath and looked at Maul with something akin to pity in his eyes. "Maul? Did your Master rape you?"

Maul cocked his head. "What's that?" It didn't sound nice and he shuddered to even think of the word. It was so strange and he made his skin crawl. "I gave my Master pleasure, yes. That's because I was his slave." He leaned back in the warm water and made a slightly happy purring sound. "But I don't know what you're talking about, so I can't tell you."

Dogma looked like he was going to cry and Maul wondered why it hurt him so much to see that.


	22. Tough Talks and Rough Nights

Maul didn't know why Dogma insisted on him sleeping in another bed. After all, he hadn't been sick. He hadn't gotten an infection from his Master. The man had made sure to wear protection every time they did something. He said that Maul wasn't twenty yet, he was only seventeen, and his body wasn't ready for him to have a kitten yet. After he was twenty and if Maul had been very good, he might have been able to have a kitten. Master had said that he might get to have a kitten and keep it. Master had said that his blood was too powerful to waste.  He said that Maul's blood went back to the most powerful _magicks_ of Dathomir. He said that someone named Talzin had blood ties with Maul and that she was one of the most powerful Force users Sidious knew.

If Maul had a kitten, his kitten would have some of the blood that Talzin did.That would mean Maul had helped advance the cause of the Sith by having a kitten that combined both his blood and Master's blood. Maul didn't see how that was a bad thing. Every time Master took him, he had messed with Maul's nipples and told him that it would have felt like that, just a little different, when the kitten nursed him. Maul hadn't liked it all that much, but he had smiled and agreed. He wanted a kitten so badly to keep him company that he would have agreed to carrying a kitten just to keep him company on Mustafar. His Master must have known that. Maul wouldn't put keeping him lonely just so he would want a kitten all that much more.

Dogma found him curled up in one of the small rooms. He didn't know what he had done wrong. All Maul had done was tell the truth. That was what Master had trained him to do, always tell the truth to those who were in power over him. And now he was punished by losing his mate? Before, if he had confessed to something his Master knew he had done, Maul had gotten a lighter punishment and meat. Raw, bloody meat. Not the cooked meat he had always ordered when he was doing a mission for his Master. He had loved being Lyle. When he was Lyle, he got to be with his friend Eldra. Master knew that there was someone, he just didn't know who. He had no idea that Maul had been seeing a former Jedi behind his back. Eldra had never been his mate, though. She had just been a good friend, someone he could talk too. She had never been a sexual partner. Maul could never hurt Eldra the way Master had hurt him.

"You're moping." The clone dropped beside him and put his arm over Maul's back. Maul looked up. His eyes were still vulnerable, still full of the painful hope that his mate would want him back. Sex with Dogma never hurt him. Dogma never made him bleed and took great pains in making sure that Maul took pleasure from the act. "Did I say something?"

"You don't want me." Maul sighed and looked down. His research about human reproductive patterns said that human males tended to prefer partners hadn't had other partners. And Maul had had another partner--his Master. He was soiled. Tainted. Even if his Master had used protection, Maul had still taken another man inside of him. He was soiled and that made him hate Sidious a little bit more. Sidious had taken his mate away from him. But Dogma hadn't even been born yet. He had just been an idea. Maybe not even that. Had Sidious known? Had Sidious known that Maul would be taken up with a clone? "I'm broken. I'm dirty because I slept with someone else other than you."

Dogma sighed loudly and grimaced. "It's not that you slept with someone else. I could care less--hell, I've slept with three Twi'leks and one of my own brothers! Though both of us were drunk and I had no idea I was with him. It's that your Master took advantage of you like Krell did with me!" He rubbed his face and looked incredibly frustrated. Had Maul done something else wrong? He whined and pressed his body into Dogma. Dogma sighed a little bit more. "I have no idea what to tell you, okay? Even on Kamino, I had my brothers. But you? From what I know from you, you were isolated. All you had was that foul son of a bitch who used you. You don't understand what it means to have consent."

"You never hurt me," Maul softly said. He started to purr, startled at how rough it sounded. How long had it been since he purred? Master had always whipped him or shocked him with lightning if he purred. Maul was to be a machine. A droid made of flesh and bone, designed to kill and maim at his Master's command. That was all his Master had seen in him. If he had had a kitten or two, that would have to further his Master's plans. "You never made me bleed. Master made me bleed sometimes, if he felt like I really deserved it."

The clone sighed and pulled him close. "That should have never happened." He pulled Maul into his lap and wrapped his strong, powerful arms around the shivering Zabrak. "It's not supposed to make you bleed unless you're into that and I really don't see you as the type to want it to bleed." Dogma sighed and rubbed his face. "Okay, Maul. When I slept with you..."

"I wanted to be with you," he softly said. Maul nuzzled the clone with a gentle touch. He loved being with the clone. Dogma made him feel safe inside. "You make me feel like nothing bad is ever going to happen. Ever. Like my Master won't ever touch me again." And he never wanted to have his Master touch him again. Maul pressed into the other man. He sighed softly, happy to be close to the one who loved him and would never hurt him.

Dogma nodded. "That's good," he softly said. "I don't want to hurt you."

Maul nodded and pressed into Dogma. He was close to his mate and he knew that his mate would never hurt him. He had a wonderful man now, a man that would love him and keep him warm. He loved the other man, he knew that now. Dogma loved him and would never allow the Zabrak to be hurt ever again.


	23. Azyl

Moping around was never a good idea on a pirate ship. Maybe Hondo had finally realized that Maul was having some issues (hiding for twelve hours at a stretch and refusing any food or water was never a good sign) and decided to help out in his own little way. Namely, he gave Maul three clones of his very own to make up a crew: he got Dogma, Patches, and one very odd clone named Marco. Marco looked different from all the others. He was taller, for one, and much more muscular. His hair was a silvery blonde and his eyes were as blue as new ice. He didn't talk much and seemed to be a loner. The idea was that Maul would be leading his very own salvage crew and Tup would have the others as a sort of "merchant force". Why, Maul had no idea, but he wasn't going to argue.

What would Azyl have done, if he could have seen Maul break down so much? Would he have joined the Zabrak in hiding? Azyl had been none too stable when he was alive. Would he have tried to help? Or would he have been just as bad as Maul, if not worse? What about Kilindi or Daleen? Maul knew Kilindi would have helped. She was, after all, his first crush. He had loved her, truly loved her. And when he had been forced to kill her... Maul couldn't have fought his Master. He just couldn't. He couldn't fight Sidious over Azyl or even Kilindi. And after watching Azyl die in screaming agony, Maul knew that a death from him would have been quick and painless. He had just killed her, not drug it out like others would have.

What was he **doing** here? Maul knew he was dangerous. Afer all, only monsters let their friends die. Only monsters couldn't save the ones they loved. Dogma was Maul's light, his life, his heartbeat, the very air that the Zabrak breathed. Patches was sweet. Tup got on his nerves, but the man was a sort of father figure to him. The other clones were more like an extended family. Rig Nema was the first female he'd looked at and seen as his _mother_. Maul whimpered and rubbed his ear. He'd gotten the stud in a fit of rebellion, only to be grabbed by his Master and violently taught that he had no control over himself, _none_. It had been one of the only times Sidious hadn't used protection. There had been so much blood...

Maul got up from his perch on the couch and paced. A part of him wanted Azyl. A part of him wanted Dogma. A big portion of Maul wanted both of them, but Azyl was dead. He wasn't a Force sensitive or he would have been trained like Maul had been Azyl had just been another one of the slave boys his Master owned. Maul whined softly and gritted his teeth. Had he actually killed Azyl by getting attached to him? The Zabrak shook his head as he walked. He needed out of here, but he couldn't abandon his family. Couldn't abandon his mate, couldn't abandon the other clones. Patches had trusted him enough to give leadership to him. Maul would never forget just what that made him feel like.

_"I still think you're a hot tamale."_

Maul looked around, growling softly. He knew that voice. That voice had kept him from attacking his Master, from walking off of the high rise. That voice had pleaded with the guards to stop hurting him, that he had done nothing wrong. The owner of that voice had slipped Maul sweet rolls and taught the Zabrak just how good some things could feel. Maul hissed softly. "This isn't funny." How had they replicated Azyl's voice? Were there any audio files of his first friend left? Maul felt the growl rise in his throat as he looked around. "I mean it! Cut it out and I'll pretend this never happened! Because _he's dead_!"

 _"I know I'm dead."_ A cool hand cupped his cheek. Maul looked around wildly, but couldn't see who it was. _"Trust me, Maul. I know. I wanted to die so badly. At the same time... I couldn't leave you."_ A thumb traced the tear that fell from one golden eye. Maul grabbed at the hands, but it was like trying to touch the mist. His hands went right through. The only way he knew they were even there was the change in temperature. _"I'm so proud of you."_

"Azyl..." Maul breathed the name. He couldn't see or feel or smell his old friend, but he was there. By some miracle, Azyl was talking to him. "H-how...?"

 _"A ghost may only trod where living he has walked before,"_ Azyl sighed. Maul could just make out his friend's face. _"Trust me. There's a difference between me and a Force Ghost."_ His features came into view, the amber eyes and his tousled violet hair. Maul whined softly. _"I know, old friend, I know. I had to beg and plead with the powers that be to even talk to you. I don't have much time, so I'm going to make this count: let go of me. You have too. I'm standing between you and your boyfriend and I don't want that."_ Azyl sniffed and gave him a hug.

Maul growled and pulled him close. "I can't let you go!"

 _"You have too."_ Hard amber eyes met gold. " _You're hurting **me**. I have to stay in those halls or where I died and I can't do that! You're hurting yourself by wanting me and not taking the clone."_

"I don't want to lose you again..." Maul looked at him with desperate eyes. "We could find you a holocron. Or a crystal. Something! I can't stand to lose you again!"

 _"I don't want to stay,"_ Azyl retorted. _"I'm ready to move on. Please, Maul. You gotta let me go. It was fun haunting that old bastard's place and giving him nightmares until I got bored, but it's time for me to move on."_ Azyl clasped his hands. _"I promise I'll be waiting for you on the other side. Kili's there. I'm sure you remember her. Daleen, Saries, all your friends. But please let me go."_

Maul swallowed his tears and touched Azyl's face. "If I have a kitten, I'm naming it after you."

Azyl batted his hand away and gave him a bittersweet smile. _"I'll be honored."_ He looked away before biting his bottom lip. Azyl started to fade after a few minutes and all Maul was left with was a chill and the bitter memory that his old friend was gone. He looked out the viewport with a shuddering breath. Maul knew what he needed to do. It was what he should have done years ago: he took the grief he had been carrying for years and released it to the Force.

"Stay safe." Maul turned one last time and wiped his eyes. He had a job to do.


	24. If It Fits, I Sits

So running a pirate ship was harder than Maul thought. There was quite a few things that you needed to take care of. Stuff that Maul thought would get taken care of on it's own. For example, when the toilets started overflowing. He thought that someone would just go and get the repair kit and fix it. But it didn't work out that way. Instead, Maul had to go fix it. Or, rather, he delegated Patches to doing it. In the few weeks he had been doing this, he had already picked up a Keshiri slave named Taala and was trying to deal with him on top of everything else. Taala was like Azyl would have been if he lived more than sixteen years. He was _very_ thin for a Keshiri and probably malnourished. The purple skinned humanoids were seen as exotic, though, and most of them had been enslaved.

The now dead Sith Prebloods had started it before they, in turn, were enslaved by a crew of exiled Jedi. It was very odd that enslaving a race would keep it alive, but a lot of Sith Purebloods (or beings with quite a bit of Red Sith blood) were still around because of the slaving actions. Zeltrons were also a sort of hybrid between humans and Red Sith. They would not have came about if not for a batch of bad Jedi. Maul found it very soothing to read up on his history. Someone was always fighting someone else, it seemed. There was nothing new under the galaxy. Life would go on as per usual and nothing would change it. Certainly not the actions of a Zabrak. Especially a Zabrak who was a former Sith.

Maul sat down in the cargo bay and tried to hide from all of the chaos that now surrounded his life. He needed to _get away_. Get away from Taala wanting attention, get away from Dogma needing help, get away from his crew, just get away from all of them. He curled up inside of his crate and rubbed his horns. Zabraks were like cats in the way that they loved small, cozy spaces. It really helped them out when things got to be a little too much. So that was why he was hiding in an unused box and not facing his job like a man. Maul growled softly and covered his head. He just needed to hide and get over it. Get a little time to breathe and then he could feel better. Maul hoped, at least.

His eyes fluttered closed and he was dreaming. For once, it wasn't a nightmare. Maul really wasn't sure why he dreamed, he just knew that he was dreaming. In this dream, he was talking to some blue Twi'lek Jedi, but he couldn't hear the words coming out of her mouth. He could just watch and try to lip read. The scene shifted again and he was watching a much younger version of himself stare out the window. It was gone, replaced by his first innocent kiss with Kilindi and their first bumbling attempts at making love. He would have given everything to save her. Even gone to Nar Shadda and been used as a kitten machine if it meant that she was saved. Maul turned away and felt the tears burn the back of his eyes. This... this hurt. It hurt so much...

"Do you know where he is?" Someone was walking around the hold, looking for him. Maul slid the lock shut with the Force and silently told them to go away. He wanted to sleep! And not be bothered! Naps were highly important if you asked Hondo. Maul made a growling sound and wrapped his arms over his head.

"No idea. All I know is Taala is screaming his fool head off. Patches can't get him to shut up and Dogma says he wants Maul." From the sound of it, it was Jay. Or Jackal maybe. Or Blaze. It was hard to tell when his hearing was muffled by the crate, but Maul was not moving. He did not want to be moved from is hidey hole, nor did he care to talk to anyone at the minute. That was why he had decided to hide rather than go out and talk to people. He still huffed some as he listened. "Don't know why we didn't leave the Keshiri. More trouble than he's worth. They're all backwards savages, the lot of them."

"Maul took him in for the same reason he took us in." That sounded like a new clone they got from Hondo, Mauser. So clones were starting to leave the GAR for him...? Maul didn't know why. He just knew that Taala was apparently a bigger pain in the ass than he thought he was. Hmm... maybe he was going to have to think about taking in new people better.

"He's messed up in the head," Jay argued. "All he does is scream. Or go running for Maul and practically beg to lick his boots for him. You know what I would do with that pretty piece of _shebs_?!"

"Do I wanna know?" From the sounds of it, Mauser was getting a cig out. Maul would have to talk to him about that, even though he agreed with Mauser about not wanting to know.

Jay plowed on. "I'd have him screaming my name! Or let my mate do it,  whatever he thinks of Dogma. Patches, too. If I knew that you could get some brownie points with Maul over being nice to him like that... I would have done it. Ages ago."

Maul had had enough and simply popped the top of the crate. Mauser screamed and stubbed out the cig. Maul rolled out of the crate and looked around at both men, somewhat wary. Jay had jumped to his feet. Mauser was still holding a burning cig. Maul stood up and dusted his trousers off. "There's quite a bit of dirt in here, wouldn't you agree?" He looked over at both of them, probably trying to gauge a reaction. Mauser nodded. "I would hate to see what Taala said about you wanting to bend him over like that. He might not like it very much."

Jay at least looked abashed. "Yeah... sorry about that..."

Maul nodded. "Don't let it happen again." And then he walked off and looked for a better place to get a nap in.


	25. Taala

The last thing Maul wanted to deal with was a purple skinned menace that whined and followed him around like he was Saint Murphy himself. Sure, Maul liked the fact that he now had a fan, but the man got annoying. And it didn't help matters that Dogma acted jealous of the man. Taala was a classically trained pleasure slave, though, and he did proudly state that. For some strange reason, he had taken a liking to Maul and that was final. It was also the last thing that Maul wanted to deal with. He already had Dogma and Patches fighting over who got the honor of sleeping in his bed (Maul solved that by kicking them _both_ out of his room for a week). The last thing he needed was to add a male that looked like sin on two legs to the mix.

Blaze liked him. Why couldn't Taala go be with Blaze? It would make his life just that much easier.

Maul sat on the bridge of the _Constant Marauder_ , reading through his reports. There wasn't that much to see out in this sector of space. Most of the time, he could take on a few ore ships or a lost merchant freighter, but those were few and far between. Maul knew why he had been given this area, though. It was pretty remote and he wouldn't run the risk of getting picked up by some Republic fleet ship. That meant that Patches' ship must have been pretty far off. He rubbed his head some as he thought. Maul was tired and he could use a good soak bath, but the new tooka kitten and Taala had the habit of ignoring locked doors. Maul solved that one with Taala by making him swab the galley deck. He was still working with the kitten.

"Bored?" Patches sat beside him and ran a hand through his sweaty hair. Maul rather liked the colors of it and how smoothly it changed from blonde to brown. And to think that his hair was considered a defect... Maul hated to inform the Jedi, but they had messed up when it came to labeling defects. Patches was beautiful, a work of art. There was nothing defective about his body. Maul nodded some as he read. Taala had curled up at his feet, dark brown eyes scanning the room. "What say we drop him off at Nar Shadda? He likes tail chasing enough, I think. Maybe they'll even pay him!"

The glare Taala shot Patches could best be considered toxic. Taala made a huffing sound and pressed back into Maul's legs. Maul had a point to not kick the man in the ribs like he wanted to. Was it his fault that he was so messed up? Taala had been born a slave. Slavery was all he knew. Was it his fault that he was as messed up as he was? Azyl hadn't acted as bad as Taala did, but that was beside the point. He was still messed up. He had been tortured, abused daily for most of his life. Could they really expect him to act normal after all of that? That was why Maul didn't kick Patches away from him or hit him. He also wouldn't let the others have a piece of him. That was just asking for trouble. Besides, the last thing he needed was a fight over the former slave.

Maul shrugged some as he thumbed through his reports. "I enjoy having a good foot warmer, Patches. Maybe you should try that instead of attacking the former slave." He thumbed through some more and shut off that part of the comm. He had been going through the _Earthman Jack Space Saga_. Maul enjoyed a good mindless read and those books were just about perfect. Besides, Taala enjoyed hearing them.

"He's getting annoying." Patches glared at Taala. The purple skinned man glared right back.

"The same could be said about you," Maul reminded him. He tried to ignore the hurt look. His mate was Dogma. You didn't take more than one mate. How could Maul satisfy two men? He was afraid that he could hardly satisfy Dogma. After all, his Master had sneered at him and told him that no one would want him. He wasn't good enough, wasn't good enough at being a lover to warrant anything special. Maul rubbed his face some and thought. Dogma thought he was enough and so did Patches. Taala just didn't care and likely wanted someone warm. Maul smiled some as he rested close. He felt safe here. These people were his crew and his family. He was enough for them.

Patches shrugged. "At least I'm not the guy with a foot fetish."

"At least I'm not looking up porn on the servers!" Taala shot back.

Maul looked over at Patches. "You were the one doing that?"

The clone had the decency to blush some. "Yeah... Once..." He glared at Taala. Taala just preened his hair some and smiled.

As always, Maul wondered what he had gotten himself into.


	26. We've Got Bigger Problems

Maul and Dogma shared a bed. It was fairly common practice for mates and Maul got cold at night. Adding Patches to the bed made it all that much better. To add to things, Patches was clearly more experienced when it came to the bedroom. There were things he could do with his mouth that made Maul wail and scream. There were times, though, that Maul needed Tup and Rig. They became his parental figures and rhere was just something about Rig's gentle hands and her soft voice that made Maul feel calm and at peace. The vest part was that she understood, too. Maul knew he could trust her with just about anything. And that... that meant a lot to the former Sith.

Before all of this, before that fateful day he had decided to run away...he could have never trusted anyone. His droids had been trained to kill him at the drop of a hat. He'd had no friends, had no interactions beyond himself, the killer droids, and his Master. There had been none of the creature comforts that he knew now. He'd washed his teeth with baking soda (there was a reason he had his own strawberry cream flavored tube of toothpaste!). He'd eaten raw meat, sometimes with the animal still kicking as he dug in. There was a song that made him cry some if he heard it. It was called "I Know I'm a Wolf" and it seemed to mirror him completely. Azyl had been the rabbit and he... had been the wolf.

Dogma twisted some beside him, whining and clawing at the sheets. Maul bent down, brushed a kiss into his dark hair, and hauled him against his chest. He was still growing. Patches and Dogma were through with growing and there Maul was, still being forced to deal with his changing body. He wouldn't be getting any taller, though. The medics had told him that when he first reached the Jedi Temple. His long years of malnutrition had stolen whatever chances he had of getting taller. Maul huffed a sigh. He didn't have to dip into Dogma's thoughts to know what he was dreaming of. It was Krell. It had to be. _Had_ to be. If Dogma had a nightmare, it was always about that four armed menace.

"It's okay," Maul softly whispered. He ran his hands through Dogma's hair, just the way he liked it. The clone gave a quiet whimper and dug his hold into Maul's shirt. For once, Maul was happy that neither of his mates had claws. Claws were long and sharp and they could shred a shirt very quickly. "He's not going to hurt you, I promise. I won't allow him to hurt you." He sighed some and kissed his head again.

Dogma glanced up after a few, his eyes wet with tears. "He...he wants me back!" He gave a fresh cry and buried himself in Maul's side. Maul sighed some. What was he supposed to do with that information? It would have been like Maul ad Azyl escaping. Of _course_ the pervert wanted his pets back! It was common knowledge! But what was he supposed to do about it? So Maul just purred and hugged him, trying to keep him warm. Dogma hiccuped. He looked very upset and Maul nuzzled his chin. He needed this. "He said he would take me back, Maul. That he wouldn't let me go and he'd make you a brood mother..."

"He's not taking you back," Maul promised. He meant every word of that and clutched the other man closer. "I just will not allow it. You're my mate, little one. Why would I ever let that cruel man take you away from me?"

"You're not so old yourself." Patches rolled over some and drew Dogma into his hands. Together, they made a sandwich around the shivering clone. Maul nuzzled Patches softly. The clone was a lifeline. He really was. He could see now why the Jedi made so many of them. Patches rubbed his hair some, holding the smaller clone close. Maul did much the same thing. "But I'm with Maul on this. He's gonna have to get through us first, okay?"

"He's been training," Dogma whispered. "Using the Dark. He's so much stronger now..."

"I'm a former Sith, love." Maul kissed the top of his head and held him close. He still loved the smaller clone's hair. It was so soft and silky. Like everything that Maul had ever wanted, bound up into that small bundle. He loved messing it up and that's what he did now. It seemed to calm Dogma, usually, but it wasn't working now. "I'm pretty sure that I can handle Krell."

"He was in my dream," Dogma whispered. He curled up close to both of them, burying his head in Maul's chest. Maul took it and nuzzled him close. But he still wasn't prepared for the haunted look that Dogma gave him, his dark eyes with with tears. "He said he has been training with a man named Sidious and they... they both want you! They both want you! They want to take you and break you and hurt you and kill both of us!"

Maul was stunned by that, but there was nothing he could do. "I won't allow that," he softly said. Inside, he wailed softly. But there was nothing he could do. He would have to fight with them if the time came. But right now... right now he would tend to his frightened mate and pray that that day never came.


	27. They Want Me Back

Sometimes, Master Sidious appeared in Maul's dreams. He would come to Maul, promising everything that his heart could desire, if only he came back to heel and did as his Master said. Maul, of course, refused. He had a family now. He had Patches and Dogma, Rig and Tup, all of them. They needed him far more than the pathetic excuse for his Master ever would. His Master could always go to Dathomir and steal another Nightbrother or he could buy a Force sensitive kitten from a meat ship. He didn't need Maul. Maul did feel that his Master had planned on breeding him, which was never a good thing. Maul figured that he was far too young for kittens. AS it was, he did take medications to prevent a pregnancy. Cash said that he was getting fertile and, if he was a brood mother, he would have already been in the stocks.

He sighed some and looked at the maps. Hondo wanted to try tomb raiding on Cymbelline. Naturally, he had signed Maul up for this and forgotten to tell Maul until they were about a week away from the planet. According to what Maul could read on the HoloNet, there wasn't all that much on Cymbelline. It had been a very active planet during the Hyperspace Wars, but that was all there was too it. Huh. Maul wasn't too sure what he had thought about that. When planets were abandoned, there was usually a good reason for it. Usually, that reason was a plague, but it could be other things. There were plenty of "witches" that knew how to summon thins from the Force better left there, if you got Maul's drift.

One of those things was said to be a great goat-demon, named Abbaddon. There was also a temple to him on Cymbelline. If this goat-demon thingy was a Force creature that had been dragged out of the living Force, he was likely to get grumpy. Things that lived in the Force didn't tend to appreciate being yanked out of it, especially if a human was involved. The last time Maul had heard of this happening was actually when a fraternity of boys had actually summoned the "demon of cheap beer" and been killed for it as a result. The "demon" involved was probably some sort of spirit that wanted to be left alone and not dragged into this world. Also, as someone who had been harassed by the frat boys on Coruscant, Maul actually understood the killing.

Patches cleared his throat and dropped a tray of food beside him. Maul looked over and pulled the glasses down his nose. He had always needed them. Master Sidious just never let him have them, saying that Maul just wasn't trying hard enough. "I got you food. Chicken satay over some kind of greens. You need to eat, Maul. Dogma's kinda worried about you and I am, too."

"I'm fine." Maul nuzzled his second mate gently, but he took a bite of the food as he ate. Taking a second mate was a strange thing. Patches was hard where Dogma was soft and vise versa. His eyes fluttered closed as he savored the food. "This is very good. Who made it?"

"Blaze did." Patches dropped beside Maul and spun the maps around. Maul ate some of his dinner and grabbed the jogans. He preferred to eat his fruit with his meat. Especially if they were eating Mandalorian food. Maul did know that they toned the food down for his taste and he was very grateful for that. He didn't think he would get to eat food like this if he was still with Sidious. "Cymbelline. Huh. Never been there, but I've heard it's pretty much a grassy waste. Some company actually wants to run nerfs and cattle over that land. The enviro nutjobs can't even find anything that needs saving."

"It used to be a port city, but pirates got involved." Maul pushed his glasses back up and gestured with his fork. "The Sith didn't see much use in taking Cymbelline, mostly because it was an Omwati colony world. The Omwati were neutral in those wars--they didn't care." He pulled up the facts again and bit his bottom lip. Omwati tended to stay out of wars. They didn't have the resources to fight and they were too tiny anyways. "I think they had a thriving little colony world until some self styled King of the Pirates, something Shiva, decided he was going to start raiding. And then he pretty much laid waste to all of Cymbelline. Those who could flee fled and those who couldn't die." He paused and ate another bite. "Also, tell Blaze that he's one hell of a cook."

Patches laughed a little bit. "Our Jedi used to make Blaze cook for him if we had fresh food. The man can do things with fresh veggies that would make a rancor weep."

"Do you miss it?" Maul interjected. He needed to know. He wouldn't keep Patches and his men prisoners if they  didn't want to be here. They weren't slaves. They were _never_ slaves.

"Miss what?"

"Do you miss being in the GAR?" Maul took a deep breath and touched his mate's hand. "I can't keep you here if you're not happy." He shuddered some, thinking of all the things he and Patches did with each other. Dogma joining in made it all that much better.

Patches shook his head and kissed Maul fiercely. "No! Why would you ever think that?"

"I was just wondering," Maul softly said. He curled up in Patches' arms, careful of his horns. He never wanted to hold one of his mates or clones captive. He could never do that. They were his family. If you loved something, you let it go. If it came back, it was yours. If it never came back... well, then it was never yours to start with. Maul would let his family go, even if it broke his heart.  "My mind wanders at times. Old habit."

"Come with me," Patches whispered. He took Maul by the arm and lead him away. "I know just how to get your mind off of such things."


	28. Cymbelline

So the entire thing about Cymbelline was the great temple to the moon goddess Ezelia. Supposedly, there was some sort of crustal and silver treasure trove that was worth several trillion credits. Hondo being Hondo, he wanted to steal it and retire. For the seventeenth time, but hey, who counted such things? Maul actually did his research on the Temple. The Omwati who had colonized the place weren't a very violent people. They really didn't do much of anything when it came to fighting, so it was unlikely that there would be any large traps. Unlikely, but not totally. Maul was so glad that he could use the Force for this one. As much as it was, he was going to have to be careful. The Temple was several thousand years old. Even if it was made out of stone, it was going to start to fall apart.

Maul had seen this in the lower levels of Coruscant. Hawkbats could only eat so many silica slugs and duracrete worms. The damn things were almost immune to pesticides and they also tasted horrible, so Squibs wouldn't eat them. And Squibs ate _everything_. They especially liked the mimbrane pods that bounty hunters used, which meant that the bounty hunters took pot shots at Squibs when they could find them. The lower levels of Coruscant were starting to fall apart, though. Things crumbled and collapsed on a daily basis. The water supply was often contaminated with lead or other industrial chemicals, unless you could rig a few sand filters (Maul had done that) or knew how to tap the water grid that went to the middle and upper levels (Maul had done that, too). There was no telling what shape the Temple of Ezelia was in. As far as Maul knew, it could have been a crumbling ruin.

He looked out over the grassy plain, noting where the few trees were. The native grazers, horses and something called yaks, were feral enough that they would stay away from the intruders. The HoloNet said that stallions and bulls were dangerous, though. The last thing he needed to do was fend off a wild animal attack. Maul walked through the waist high grasses. His macrobinolculars would alert him of any of the predators, cave lions or some kind of giant lizard beast, decided to show up. There was a system of natural caves within the Temple. As this place had been abandoned for thousands of years, it was pretty likely that the wildlife might have decided to move in.

Maul touched the stonework with one bare hand. Even though it was mostly a crumbling ruin, it was still beautiful. It looked like the Temple had once been covered in geometric mosaics. Possibly inlaid with silver and semi precious stones. It looked like time had mostly weathered the place down. Here and there, a sapphire glinted from the ground. His crew moved to pick them up. Taala stood with him. The Keshiri was still annoying, but he was brave and willing to go with him. Maul was happy about that. He couldn't risk one of his mates on this venture, but Taala was okay. If he died, life would go on. Maul focused on the Temple, trying to feel if there was anything in there that would get in the way. The very Temple thrummed with a vibrant energy in the Force, though, and that muddled the readings. Maul frowned some. He focused again, but it was like being pulled into a cool, sweet current.

"There's a river down there." Maul stood up. He grabbed the double bladed lightsaber he'd made from spare junk and lit it. It would serve as a combination glowstick and predator killer. Just because Maul couldn't _feel_ the bad things didn't mean that they weren't there. "I'm not sure how deep. Jackal, pull up the blueprints again." For once, Maul thanked the fact that Hondo had access to the Coruscant Archives. He even had the membership card _and_ the monthly subscription to what was likely the most boring magazine in the galaxy. It was under an assumed name, of course, but Hondo was still a part of the Royal Archeological Society. It gave them access to all kinds of neat things.

Like the blueprints Jackal was spinning around in the air. "According to these, you're feeling the River Cygnus. We don't see anything about traps, but you have the Force. Use that and see what you can find."

Maul nodded grimly and looked at the yawning, broken mouth of the old Temple. The thing had caved in partially, so it looked like they were crawling into a mouthful of broken teeth. The young Zabrak squared his shoulders and forced his way inside. Taala walked beside him. He moved like a dancer, his steps feather light, and Maul watched the floor. The idea was that Maul would find the sanctuary and the treasure. He would plant a beacon and the crew would use the lasers on the newly salvaged _Scimitar_ to cut their way inside. It was an almost foolproof plan. The only issue was getting down there. Just to be safe, Maul and Taala stuck to the walls. If this was a Sith Temple, it would have already tried to eat them. Since it was the temple of a relativity benevolent goddess, it got really dark, really quick.

The red Zabrak took point. He searched out with the Force again, trying to feel what was there. The air hung cool and oppressive against his brilliant red and black skin. Glowing moss clung to the walls and obscured old frescoes that were possibly worth millions. From what Maul could see of them, they were talking about how the goddess Ezelia defeated some horrible war god. He couldn't read the flowery Omwati script, but he could see enough of the paintings to know what was going on. It was interesting to note that the Cult of Ezelia was largely egalitarian. It had replaced a male dominated cult that required complete submission and was still fairly popular on Omwat today.

Maul shook his head some. He could save the history lecture for later. Now they just had to go through the rest of the Temple. The deeper they went, the cooler and darker it got. The walls were covered in some sort of crystals (they reminded Maul of the light storing Aldaraanian crystals that illuminated much of Coruscant at night), but they had long since lost most of their power. The crystals were only dimly flickering now, washing the floors and walls with a weak coating of silver. Maul glanced over to Taala. The Keshiri didn't look like he was enjoying this, but he was at least game for it. And so they slipped deeper and deeper into the heart of the Temple. Right until they reached the gilded silver archways and the roaring River Cygnus.

The water lashed across the rocks at it's banks and glowing crabs skittered around the edge. Maul could have sworn that a strange fish, as long as a starfighter, cruised near the top of the river. And just on the other side was a haphazard pile of crystal and silver. Maul's eyes narrowed as he considered it. The bridge across the river, or what was left of it, lay dashed to pieces and twisted across the rocks. It looked like the underground river burst it's banks sometime in the past. Maul touched the Force and it never felt so _electric_ and _alive_. Like he was tapped into the very heartbeat of the universe. He swallowed some and looked over the banks. The river was too rough to swim across and besides, there was who knew what kind of wildlife down in there.

"What do we do now, Master?" Taala asked. The Keshiri pressed his body into Maul and Maul saw that he was shaking out of fear or cold. Maul wasn't sure which, but he figured that Taala did want out of here.

"How much do you trust me?" Maul slowly asked. He had a plan, but it required Taala trusting him. And holding still, but he needed the trust thing better.

Taala gave him a long look. "I trust you more than life itself, Master."

"Good." And with that, Maul grabbed him with the Force and starting levitating him across the river.


	29. I Trust You

Taala had to be scared out of his wits. He had to be shaking as Maul carried him through the air. Maul could see the pain and terror in his eyes as he was carried over. Maul sat him down quickly and watched as Taala collapsed to his knees. The male whined softly. Maul hoped that he wasn't hearing any vomiting over there, because he did not want to walk through it. He grimaced some and held up his blade. The air seemed to shimmer here, like he was drinking in pure power. But the last thing he needed was to fall into that river. Levitating Taala was one thing. Taala was a Force null. He didn't have his own bit of Living Force to get in the way and make things really fun for Maul. Now Maul? The red Zabrak was pretty strong with the Force and the last thing he wanted to do was fall in the river because it was too hard to focus.

"Stay there!" Maul yelled. He climbed up on a series of skinny ledges, as nimble as a mountain goat. His boots were made for traction as it was. It wasn't like he was going to go skidding off or something. The man gritted his teeth some as he walked forwards. The ledge was only a few inches wide at the largest and little rocks fell as he walked over them. Slipping and falling now would, most likely, be fatal. Maul didn't want to drown or be dashed to pieces by the rocks below. He gritted his teeth and pressed his back against the rough walls. His Master would have already punished him for taking this long, but he had two mates and a crew to return too. A little bit of caution would go a long way.

Maul slipped twice. Each time, he managed to grab on to the Force and claw his way up the ledge. Each time, he heard Taala wail and cry. Maul forced himself to ignore the Keshiri slave and instead focus on the bigger problems. He needed to get across this river. Maul inched his way across slowly, so glad that the rocks weren't wet. Great sheets of glowing golden moss hung below him, growing where the river's spray had slicked porous rock. Maul didn't want to know how that moss was living down here. He figured it had to do with the Force, but he didn't want to learn the hard way. Once he got across to the other side, he all but collapsed on the stony ground. There was an odd rumble in the Force and it seemed like the rest of the ledge melted into the wall.

Something skittered in the half light. Maul swung his lightsaber around, trying to figure out what the noise was. He'd only lit the blue end (the red end gave him a headache if he looked at it long enough) and staring through the blue tinted light made it worse. Taala whimpered and pressed into Maul. The young Zabrak ignored him and slipped ahead. Something raced along a side passage just out of sight. Something made him shiver. It reminded Maul of a scene out of The Book of Sith and not in a good way. He'd heard of things called tuk'ata. They were skinny, wolf-like creatures with horns and a long row of spines down their backs. Dangerous creatures. He'd made friends with one once, only for his Master to kill the beast.

_And it worked. He just made me hate him more. Gnasher never did anything to him!_

Maul shook the old memories away as he walked. They needed to get out of here. The sooner, the better. This didn't have the dark, choking air of a Sith Temple, but it didn't have the sweetness and light of a Jedi Temple, either. It... was like it was made of grey? Was that a thing? Could Temples be neither dark or light, but made of both? Maul tried to shove the philosophy questions back where they came from. Getting out of here alive was the first priority.  He gritted his teeth some as he walked, making sure to keep where he could see. Maul wouldn't feed Taala to this Temple's version of a tuk'ata. He remembered what Sidious had done on Koribaan, so long ago. How he had shoved the Twi'lek girl Maul had shyly spoken too  off of the speeder and watched as she was torn apart.

 _And that_ , Sidious had explained, _is the fate of the weak and Force null on Koribaan. Apprentice, make sure that it doesn't happen to you._

The worst part was that Maul didn't even know the name of the girl he had killed. Just that she had a dark violet skin and eyes the color of new ice. Maybe...maybe they could have had something, but Sidious had made sure that it would never happen.

There started to be steps in the cave that they going through. Well worn steps. Steps that looked like generations of feet had gone there before. That was a good thing, Maul figured. That meant that other people had been there before. That meant that they weren't going to be killed for going off this path and hopefully finding the treasure. Maul truly hoped that said treasure was as valuable as Hondo thought it was. If he was risking his life just for a pile of shitty rocks... Well, then he wasn't going to be very happy, was he? Maul picked his way through the rubble, only for the dark shape to go darting past him again. Taala let out a terrified cry and pressed his body into Maul's.

"Don't let it eat me!" Taala wailed.

Maul nodded. "I won't. I promise." He gritted his teeth some and turned the corner... only to trip over a tuk'ata pup. A little one. One that was far smaller than usual. Tuk'ata were native to many planets thanks to early Force users, so it looked like this little guy must have fallen down a hole. Maul crouched down and whistled. The tuk'ata whined some. It only took a few minutes and some meat scraps before Maul was holding a horned and wiggly ball of fluff. The creature covered his face in little licks and wrapped up his arm in a surprisingly strong prehensile tail. Maul decided to take it in stride. Better a pup than an adult. But he walked into the next room, only to be stunned when he saw what looked like a treasure trove.

Filled with crystal and silver.

He grabbed his comm. "Guys, I've found it. Fire the laser."


	30. What a Haul

Not surprisingly, the pup was well received by the rest of his crew. Cute and fuzzy animals tended to do that with people. Maul tried not to think of the cat he'd once had and what his Master had done once he'd found the young Zabrak sharing his meager rations with a stray animal. The  pup was quickly named, as clones tended to do, and was sent up first. The tuk'ata pup, now dubbed Swift, had screamed bloody murder when he was hauled up in a crate, but he soon quieted down when he was tossed a few scraps of meat. Maul allowed himself a very small smile as he got to work. He loved Swift already, if only because the pup was so bloody cute. Taala was the next out of the sunken Temple. It was pretty clear that the Keshiri _hated_ the place.

Not that Maul blamed him. It was rather cold and the sheets of glowing moss made you look around and see if there were any Force monsters. Maul had studied the Book of Sith and he knew just what the Sith could do if they got their mind to it. Battle beasts and mind eating birds were just some of what the wizards of old could do. He kept his saberstaff at the ready as he looked around.

Something whispered to him. It was just at the back of his mind, but it was still there. Subtle. Like only he could hear it. The man gritted his teeth some and tried to shake it out of his head. Whatever it was, he didn't want to hear it. The Zabrak lasted a few more minutes before he slipped off from all the others. Even though they had technology, it would take hours before they had everything loaded. His cat like eyes glittered some as they reflected the light and he cocked his head. The Force tugged at him. Maul slipped down one of the unused tunnels. He didn't even flinch when his boots crunched through small animal bones or he smelled the death and decay in the air. That... was just the Force. It was life and death, everything and nothing, all at once.

He looked around warily, trying to see what he was supposed to see. A few of the pictographs glowed on the walls, but he had no idea what they meant. Some of them showed horses with glowing horns lifting rocks, before they in turn were enslaved by cat like creatures. Maul wondered if this old Temple had been a base for revel activities. He walked a little bit down before he came upon the twisted skeleton of such a creature. Scraps of blue and green hide clung to the bones and he could see lighter streaks that would have made beautiful markings. The horse's glowing horn was still there, coated with dust and cobwebs. Although this wasn't what the Force wanted him to see, he still wrenched the horn from it's place in the horse's skull and carried on.

Maybe he thought he was going crazy, but he swore that he saw a regal looking horse, her mane falling to the ground, watching him with kind brown eyes. Maul glanced down at the horn. If nothing else, he could sell it. It looked like the race that built this Temple was dead and had been dead for thousands of years.

The whispering in his ears grew louder. Maul turned around some, noting that he was in the middle of what once had been a massive chamber. The vaulted ceiling was sagging now from the weight and from the look of the crushed balcony and the shattered glass, this had once been a castle. A very tall castle. And yet, now it was buried deep underground and only populated by the skeletons of horses. One of them had massive wings and by her side lay a curious weapon. Like it was designed to be used by some strange force and also where she could swing it in her mouth. He took that too. He wandered through the chamber, a few times wiping the dust from the walls and trying to understand the strange script these creatures could use.

He tripped over a crown. Maul grabbed it with the Force and cursed some, looking at the intricate jewels and the goldwork. The crown must have been made for a queen, but now it was lying buried in dust. Perhaps the chamber would collapse one day and all of this would be lost. Forever. Maul glanced around some and the Force called him to an intricately worked fountain. Like everything in this great chamber, it had been worked with gold and gems into a strange and stunning pattern. Another horned horse was fighting a large cat in this one, the creature's horn skewering the cat through the hip. Maul winced. _That_ had to hurt. The horn in his hands glowed some and Maul didn't know why, but he gently tapped the surface of the water with the horn.

White hot light flashed before his eyes, rapidly showing him scenes. Scenes of the horses that had lived here and the queen that ruled them all. Scenes of strange cats landing and killing the horses before dragging them away to work in mines. Scenes of his own life, of how he was tortured by his Master and the one Jedi he had seen, so long ago. Maul tried to take it all in, tried to know why the Force sang as he saw a skinny Zabrak clinging to life in a darkened Temple, tried to understand why his heart hurt when the Zabrak was dragged away from his family. The setting shifted again and a horse, clothed in robes and wreathed with the ornaments of royalty, was dragged and slaughtered by the cats before being eaten.

He saw how the horses rebelled against their Masters, how they called on what seemed to be the Force to save them, and how even that failed in the end. He saw how the brilliant colors of their fur and eyes muted until they were just dull brown mine horses, some with odd spots, still working for the Zyggrians today. The setting shifted once more and it allowed him to watch as the strange yellow Zabrak was cursed and struck for being born a male. He watched even more how the male was begging for help and he wondered if that was why the Force had called him here. _Dathomir_. That was where he needed to go. He needed to go to Dathomir and trade this strange horn for the lives of those two Zabraks.

Maul rested back on his heels and looked around the chamber with new eyes. He didn't know their name, but he knew the stories of these horses now. He would let archeologists come here and study the place so all the others could, too. As for Maul, he would never be touching that fountain again. Not for all the money in the galaxy, either. He forced himself to sober up as he went back to the others. Maul found two more horns and he took them, too. He wondered if he was taking the spirits of these horses with him and decided that wouldn't be a bad thing.

After all, those horses had fought off Zyggerians for a hundred years. Maul could use all the help he could get.


	31. My Brothers

Maul had no idea what Dathomir was like. He'd never seen it before, had only heard the stories that his master had told him. Master Sidious had only told him enough to keep him afraid of what might happen if he was tossed away. He'd been brought up hearing lurid tales of young males being tortured and abused by the witches. And going by white he'd seen in his vision, that might not have been so far from the truth. Maul ignored both of his mates and locked himself in his quarters to meditate on what he'd seen. It was so... strange. The creatures that he had seen and the Fall of a once proud race. He knew nothing about them, but he wondered what they could tell him.

He stroked the strange horn and closed his eyes. Whispers of power started surround his mind, showing him things that were just _a little_ too much for him to understand. Maul shoved through them quickly as he focused.  There seemed to be a strange current of power running through the thing. Maul thought that he liked it. It could give him a quick boost of power if he needed it. He tried to wrap his mind around it, but it slipped away from him. Like it was made of pure light and just looked solid, rather than looking like it was made of nothing. Maul didn't like that very much. He tried to find the two scrawny Zabraks, but all he felt was a layer of cold power that chilled him to the bone.

Maul knew enough to know that he was being blocked. By who? He didn't know. He cursed under his breath and rubbed his face. What was Maul supposed to do now? He needed to find those Zabraks. They were special, he knew, but he didn't know how or why. Maul  uncurled his legs from where he'd been resting and got up. The Zabrak needed to get up and do something. He just wasn't sure what, though. All he needed to do was get this nervous energy out. The young Zabrak growled some as he paced. He was tired of not knowing. Maul knew that he could have been a Jedi, but he figured that wouldn't have worked very well, either. He was too much of a free thinker to be a Jedi and he loved clones.

What was he supposed to do? Use the Force to find those Zabraks? But what if he was being blocked? How could he get through that? Maul had no idea what he was supposed to be doing right now. It was like he almost had access to this deep vat of power, but it was just out of his grasp. Not only was that annoying, it was also dangerous. What if he needed that power? What if he was supposed to fight the Sith that was keeping him from these Zabraks? How was he supposed to go about that if he didn't have access to the power? Maul let out a tired growl and kicked the wall. He needed to get this over with. And soon. So he started trying to focus back on the horn, to draw the power out of it, before he was tossed out by the thing.

"Thank you very much." Maul threw the horn on the bed and rubbed his forehead. Great. Now he had a headache and he had little to no idea what he was supposed to do with it. "I hope the witches have better luck with you than I did."

Someone knocked on the door. "Hey, Maul?"

"Yeah?" Maul used the Force to unlock the door and grinned when Patches walked in. The man had grown out his hair and he looked so much better. The clone hummed softly and sat beside him, letting the tired Zabrak cuddle up with him. "Who needs what done for them?" Maybe Hondo had called and he wasn't on more stupid treasure hunts. "Or do you just want to talk?"

"I missed you." Patches grabbed a blanket over both of them and kissed the hollow of his neck. Maul whined softly and lifted his head up. He loved it when Patches did this. It was even better when he had Dogma to help, but all Maul wanted to do was get a little relief. He growled softly, trying to get Patches to hurry up. The man laughed softly as he started to go out it, kissing and nipping in all of Maul's spots. The Zabrak made one of his mewing sounds and Patches swallowed it whole. He did not care, either. The clone growled softly. He started stroking his horns, making the young Zabrak gasp and whine. Force... but he loved this. He loved it when he got his horns rubbed.

"Yes..." Maul whined some and kissed Patches softly. "Please... I want that!"

Patches laughed softly and kept at it. He pressed kisses on the base of the horns, loving him there and just stroking his body where he liked it. Patches knew him. Patches could play his body like a fiddle. Maul simply did not care about it. He bucked his hips up a few times, asking if Patches would get him off. Patches was a bit of a switch and he did like to be knotted. Maul didn't want to do that right now. He whined a little bit. He nipped the man's hands softly, an odd look in his golden eyes. Patches kissed him back and snaked a hand down into his pants. Maul bucked his hips up and pressed there. Patches knew what he wanted. Maul only had to ask and he did that.

Maul came with a cry and slumped down into the blankets. Force, but he felt so much better. "Thank you," he whispered. He smiled and purred some as Patches wiped his hands off. "Stay with me?"

"Of course." Patches wrapped around him and nuzzled him. Maul breathed in his scent some and closed his eyes. This... this was what he wanted. All of it. The rest was just an afterthought. He could live with just Patches and Dogma. He knew it.


	32. Feral

Maul had no idea that he had brothers. His Master had said that he had no brothers, that he had been borne of the Dark Side and that he had no family. He was just a Zabrak. Nothing more and nothing less. He was a red Zabrak and he would never be anything more. It had been so hard for him to escape the claws set into him by his Master. He had never been intended to be anything more than a slave. It showed, too. All he knew how to do was to serve his Master. And even that, he'd been ridiculed and hated. Kicked around, abused, half starved... It had taken years with his gang to get him out that mindset. He'd had to work hard to get it out of his system. And even today, he still caught himself having a nightmare or fearing that his Master was going to come back and get him.

He wasn't quite sure what it felt like to have brothers. It felt... good? He thought? He had never felt like this before. Never had the knowledge that he wasn't the only one of his line in the galaxy. Had he been bred from a line of Nightbrothers? Did he have a father? A mother? Maul had no idea what do with his newfound family. So that was he was heading to Dathomir. He needed to find his family. Or his brothers at least. So he sighed and he paced. The clones seemed to understand he was upset. Taala, too. He mostly played with the tuk'ata pup, anyways. The last time Maul saw him, he was trying to train the small animal to walk on his hind legs. Maul wished him luck, because he didn't know if that animal could be trained or not.

Dathomir was a mud ball. When he looked at it from the bridge, he shuddered. The entire planet felt _bad_ and _wrong_ to him. He shuddered some. For the first time, he was nervous to have horns and have the bright red skin. He looked up what Zabraks looked like. Some of them were wraith thin and beautiful. They looked _stunning_ and for the first time, Maul could understand why a Master would want one as a slave. Others were covered with mud. They were thin, tired, worn looking. Like they were nothing but slaves. Maul looked over at the planet and scanned it. He bit his bottom lip. There was plenty of life, but he couldn't see any place that looked like a space port. Maybe he was seeing it wrong.

He turned to Jackal, the guy who was working the helm. The clone was very calm and one of the best helmsmen Hondo had ever seen. And that was saying something, because that old pirate had ran a thousand ships and seen a thousand men work the helm. Women, too. Maul cleared his throat some. "Are you seeing any sort of space port down there? I already ran a scan, but I'm not getting anything. I'd like you to run a second check."

"If you already ran a scan, you probably already got a read. I'll humor you, though." Jackal bit his bottom lip and keyed in the code. Maul watched the screen over his shoulder. A few seconds later, the scan returned. And just as it had a few minutes before, the scan came up clean. "You were right, Captain. It's coming up clean. That means that we're going to have to wildcat. You have a choice between swamp or grassland. We have no data on any major species or predators. Just that this is where ninety percent of first generation Zabrak slaves come from."

Maul swore under his breath. "Take us down in the grassland. At most, we'll deal with a large feline or canine predator. Swamps are full of all sorts of creatures." Maul shuddered some. "I spent some time in the Gungan Swamp. Not fun, let me tell you."

"I would believe it." Jackal entered in the coordinates that they wanted. Maul gripped the hilt of his lightsaber. The weapons were so light in his hands and sometimes he wanted a weapon that had a little weight. That was why he was looking for the Dark Saber, if that weapon even existed in the first place. There was little Maul could do about the Dathomir situation, though. All he could do was pray to the Force that everything would be going okay. The Zabrak gritted his teeth some as the ship entered atmosphere. It was a rocky one, which meant that the planet had high winds. That would make it even more fun when it came to getting off. If he even _could_ get off.

It was a very unsettling thing, knowing that he was likely walking into something that wouldn't end well.

The ship landed with a muffled crash. Maul lowered the gang plank quickly and was the first one to slip out. The wind tugged at his horns some, dragging his black cloak around him. Nothing. Nothing as far as the eye could see. Just a solid plane that stretched out far and wide. He cursed under his breath some and started out. The horn was safely in his pack and he opened himself to the Force. It surged around him some and beckoned him. Maul followed. He walked quickly and soon came to the border between the forest and the grassland. The Force was drawing him in there, but there seemed to be a sort of danger to it. He paused. Much like cats, Zabraks could "taste" the air and sense things through scent.

There was someone there. Maul didn't know who, but he was willing to bet that it was someone who could take him to his brother. Without waiting for the clones, he started charging right in. The branches seemed to lash his face as he pushed through. Maul cursed under his breath. There were thorns there and they caught his clothes. Some even scratched flesh. Maul cursed under his breath. He needed to get out of this forest! The Force cried out with a warning, but Maul was a second too slow. The next thing he knew, an arrow was buried in his shoulders. He yelled in pain and fell to the ground. Blood, hot and sticky, oozed from the wound and he slapped a hand over it.

Boots crashed through the underbrush. Maul forced himself up and grabbed his lightsaber. When he was little, his Master had forced him to fight on broken bones, This would be no different. He released the blade and watched as several feet of fire spilled from the hilt. He was just about to react when he collapsed to his knees from pain. The young Zabrak wailed. He looked up, only to see a creature that looked like it had been birthed from the fires of hell. It was ghostly white, with stark black tattoos and white hair that was braided with teeth. It was holding a bow, too. Maul tried to get up, but it was like his knees were locked and he was forced to kneel. He drew a ragged breath. The thing lodged in his back hurt like hell, too.

The creature smiled at him. "And you thought you could get away."

"I'm looking for my brother," Maul managed. He looked up, grimacing in pain. The arrowhead was lodged deep in his muscles and he wanted to cry out from the pain. "I have two of them. Have... have you seen them?"

"How am I to know?" it spat. A boot crashed into Maul's face and he reeled back. "All males look the same to me. Now up you go. Mother Talzin won't be pleased that you tried to escape."

Maul had no choice but to follow the creature. It felt like his entire back was aflame and he tried not to lose himself to the agony.


	33. The Long Walk Home

It had been a long time since Maul had been in this much pain. It was like his entire back was on fire, that the arrow had been dipped in some sort of toxic substance, and Maul didn't know what to do. He was having a hard time walking. Having a hard time keeping on his feet and staggering after the strange alien through the forest. He was afraid of what might happen here. No one else could use the Force. He was the lone Force user there and he'd never been fully trained by Lord Sidious. If that was by accident or design, Maul would never really know. He might have his own speculations, but it was hard to know without the Force. He couldn't ask the old man, either. Maul didn't want to be enslaved again.

The air burned his lungs as he walked. Maul could feel the blood ooze down his back, coating his shirt and dripping down into his pants. If this had been when he was with Lord Sidious, he would have been more upset with ruining his few pairs of clothes rather than getting some kind of sharpened stick in his shoulder. Maul collapsed to his knees after a few minutes, pressing his fingers on the wound. It really did hurt _that much_. Maul didn't know if he could stand it or not. He gasped again, still not really with it when the female creature kicked him with her boots. In some dim part of his mind, he noted that they were hide, without soles, but he was in too much pain to really do much of anything about it.

The creature made a grumbling sound and grabbed the shaft of the weapon. "Brace yourself." She wrapped her fingers around it and _yanked_. Maul arched his back and screamed, not caring that all and sundry could hear him. It was all he could do to grasp the bloody wound and whimper. Maul didn't know what to do. He still had the strange horn, but he didn't think that he could bargain with this creature. The alien looked at him and snorted like he was mud on the bottom of her boots. She sniffed some. "Typical male. Can't even take a little bit of pain. What? Do you want me to get a horse and take you back to the village? Do you promise that you won't run away, like a good little male?"

"Lady, if you can get back to my ship without a few quarts of blood, then you're some kind of Warrior goddess." Maul gave her a dry look. "Ever heard of Akaavi Spar? You might like her. Go read a history book instead of shooting people on a sightseeing trip."

The female looked at him. "Excuse me? Do you know who I am? Who are you and why are you talking to me like this?"

Maul gave her a dry look as he called upon the horn to fix his back. It did so after a few minutes and he tried not to gasp. It was like sinking into a hot tub via the Force. Maul had never done that before, but he planned too. If he could get out of this mess, that was. He and his crew would hit Canto Bight, try not to blow anything up, and he would spend the weekend sipping champagne. "My name is Maul and I have no idea who you are. I'm Coruscanti. Not Dathomiri."

"I'm the witch Ketea." Ketea rubbed her white hair and glared at him. Maul just sat in the grass again. He hurt all over and the last thing he wanted to do was be social with someone who had shot him in the back. Literally. The last time he'd tried that had been with Komari Vosa and she had betrayed him to his Master. Maul could have left. He could have left with Eogan and Zero. They could have started a new life together. Been smugglers, just like the red haired boy had said. Maul had been foolish enough to believe that he could get away with it. After he got back, Master had punished him severely for even daring to think such a thing. So it was no wonder that he didn't trust this Ketea person. Ketea sat beside him. "What's it like on Coruscant?"

"Crazy." Maul made random gestures in the air. He ached all over and the blood was starting to get annoying. He needed to get washed off before anything happened. Biting flies were the worst. They carried more infectious diseases than other insects, too. Maul had learned that one from his time on Osiris. Green fever wasn't a fun thing. "The entire planet's a city. Walls of gleaming steel and glass. Air's full of speeders. All sorts of aliens are walking around. You got Wookiees, Twi'leks, Dugs, Togruta, humans... all of it. But I've never seen anyone like you. What _are_ you?"

"I'm the female version of what you are. A Nightsister. You're a Nightbrother." Ketea got up. "And speaking of, I still need to take you to the Witch Mother. We don't allow strangers to trespass on our land. Especially strangers like _you_."

Maul raised one of his brow tattoos. "I needed to speak with the person in charge, actually. Something about trading an artifact I picked up in an old city for my two brothers. It sings of the Force and the Force has been telling me that I needed to find them. That's why I'm here, actually. I want to find my family."

"You brought a powerful artifact to exchange for males when you could have brought fifty credits." Ketea got up and started walking. Maul forced himself to follow her. As much as he wanted to unload on this young witch, he couldn't. He needed her. At least until he got to the village, that was. He needed her and he needed to keep her talking. The forest path they were on widened into a small road that was paved with smooth, flat rocks. Maul shuddered some as he followed her. He was getting the feeling that he was starting something that he couldn't take back.

That feeling was confirmed when they reached the village.


	34. The Chains that Bind

The entire village loomed over him like something out of one of those suspense holos that Patches liked. Maul had already bonded with those two. He didn't know if they would want him or not, mostly because he was already taken. Yet, Maul knew next to nothing about these Nightbrothers and for all he knew, he was what they wanted. He walked with Ketea, watching the others. He didn't like the witches very much from what he knew of them. There were more witches, all gathered to look at him. They had bone white skin and hair that ranged from bone white to raven black. Hard eyes, like sharp topaz, seemed to rake over his body. If Maul wasn't in pain, he would have grabbed his lightsaber. The horn might have fixed the muscles, but he still ached.

There was one that was waiting for him by the well. She wasn't any taller than they were, but the angles of her face were sharper and her eyes seemed... harder, almost. Her black tattoos made her look like she was something half dead and half alive. Green clung to her body. It was almost like green mist, but Maul didn't quite think that was what it was. She was draped in ornate robes. Her headdress seemed to move, like it was alive, but there wasn't any sort of wind. Maul was shaking in her boots when she looked at him. She had scars on her head, like she once had horns, but they had been burnt off. Her auburn hair was caught up in some sort of updo, but Maul couldn't tell much about her.

She looked at him like one would look at a bug on their boots. "What?" she sneered. "Is this? Tell me, Ketea, did you finally decide to take a mate? And why is it dressed in spacer's clothes? Was it trying to escape? Why did you bring it back instead of killing it?"

Maul _snarled_. "My name is Maul. Use it." He wasn't going to take that sort of crap lying down if he had too. The witch gave him a cold look. Maul tried to call to the Dark Side. He only got a little of the power he was used too, but it was enough and it seemed to boil in his veins. If he wanted too, he could kill this female and find what he came for. Now, it might be one hell of a fight, but he was pretty sure he could kill her. Whatever she used probably wasn't much of a match for some good, old fashioned Dark Side. The woman sneered at him and it seemed like the shadows were tipping in towards her. Maul gasped. His head really did appreciate that, but he somehow managed to hold on. He didn't know how, but he did.

"Impressive." The woman walked around him, eyeing him like he was some sort of beast for sale. Maul tried to step back, but it was like his limbs were welded to the ground. There was a keen look in her golden eyes as she looked him over. "Most impressive. I didn't know that a mere male had the ability to withstand shadow bending."

"I've been through more than you'll ever understand," Maul murmured. The woman tipped his chin up to meet her eyes and she gave him a deadly look. He didn't look like he was going to back down. And he wasn't. He was going to get his brothers. The woman nodded again. She drew back from him and there was an odd gleam in her eyes. Maul was struck by how similar to Sidious that she looked in this moment. Were they related? Was his old Master part... Nightsister? Whatever that was? For all Maul knew, he was and it really did make sense.

"So it seems like Lord Sidious rejected his gift. It really is a pity. You see, you were a gift to Lord Sidious. It cemented our alliance." The woman shrugged softly. "If he found a maleling like you lacking, then he should have told me."

"I am my own man!" Maul started shaking in rage, trying to hold it together. He couldn't do anything that would get him killed. The Dark Side seemed to sing and it was like everything happened in slow motion. A strange burning filled his body and he watched in horror as silver blue tendrils crawled up his arms. Maul seemed to roar as he hurled it. It was like whatever it was was alive and it seemed to dance through the air. Maul watched it. He didn't know what it was, just that it somehow looked wrong as it arched through the blood red sky. He watched as the witches scattered. Someone loosed an energy bolt at him. Maul grabbed his lightsaber and when he lit it, both blades were blood red.

Someone screamed as he started slicing through the bolts. Someone tried to hit him with the Force. Maul sent it away from him and he twisted. Someone attacked him with a Force staff. Maul raced at her. His weapon was screaming in the Force and something made him see red. He stabbed at her, sending her backwards. Someone was using a bow. He ripped it from the witch's hands, sending it far away. Ketea screamed, but even she fell to his weapon. In her hands was a glowing red dagger and Maul didn't intend to be the one in the body bag. He twisted in the air, meeting another staff with his lightsaber. The every air seemed to hiss, crackle, burn as they went back and forth. He over powered it after a few seconds and cut a young witch in two.

Pain lanced up his back. He roared, whipping around. Another witch had daggers and she loosed another at him. Maul sent it right back at her, lodging the weapon in her throat. And through it all, the old woman was looking at him like he was some sort of favored son. Well, Maul had had enough of that. He grabbed the Force, asked it to do that blue thing again, and sent it right back at her. She staggered backwards, yelling from the pain. The darkness seemed to cover Maul's eyes, but he forced it aside. The horn screamed that this wasn't what he was supposed to be doing, but he didn't care and he meant to win. The other witches started running, but the older one recovered herself.

She laughed and froze Maul with a flick of the wrist. "Thank you for purging the Clan of weaklings. It's something not even repeated rancor hunts have done."

"My. Pleasure." Maul tried to struggle against the bonds. He growled at her again, wishing that he still blacked his teeth in like he did when he was younger. The witch gave him another cold look before she forced him to his knees.

"And I'll be taking that." She grabbed his lightsaber and doused the weapons. The woman turned to the surviving witches. Maul had at least put a dent in their numbers and he figured that was good. The witch gave him a dark look. Right before she did something that made him hiss in pain. "Novati! Mosami! Get him to the male's village and make sure that he knows his place. We'll be getting strong kits from this one!"

The last thing Maul knew was a sort of muted horror before he passed out.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos make me update faster!


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